


Aesthetic Journey Through the Valley

by theNoke



Category: Stardew Valley (Video Game)
Genre: Angst and Fluff and Smut, Drama & Romance, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Eventual Fluff, Eventual Relationships, Eventual Romance, Eventual Sex, Eventual Smut, Explicit Sexual Content, F/M, Falling In Love, Fluff and Smut, Forehead Kisses, Foreplay, Grinding, Hurt/Comfort, Idiots in Love, Lemon, Love Confessions, Love Triangles, Love/Hate, Lust, Lust at First Sight, Mutual Pining, Neck Kissing, Nipple Play, Nudity, Oral Sex, Orgasm, Orgasm Delay/Denial, POV Second Person, Pining, Plot What Plot/Porn Without Plot, Porn With Plot, Porn with Feelings, Resolved Sexual Tension, Romance, Rough Kissing, Rough Sex, Sexual Content, Sexual Fantasy, Sexual Tension, Slow Build, Slow Burn, Slow Romance, Smut, Surprise Kissing, Vaginal Sex
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-07
Updated: 2019-09-06
Packaged: 2020-06-24 06:09:09
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 28
Words: 56,727
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19717789
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/theNoke/pseuds/theNoke
Summary: You move to your grandfather's old farm after you discover a note from him in your desk at work. You are nervous about dropping everything and moving to a new location, but soon find yourself in a downward spiral with a local resident named Alex.





	1. The Breaking Point

**Author's Note:**

> This chapter is very short but I am only trying to establish a setting and whatnot! Kind of want to keep it true to the game :3 
> 
> The first 2 chapters are slow, but if you want you can skip ahead to 3 for the goods!
> 
> Thank you for reading!

You stared mindlessly at the blue screen in front of you. How could this possibly be your life?Coming out of high school you had such high hopes for your future. You were going to finish your degree in business management, land a stellar job in the city, and become CEO in a matter of months. The reality, however, is that you are 4 years post grad, clinging to your last string of sanity, and a corporate slave to JoJaMart. Rolling your eyes, you look at the clock next to your cubicle: “only 9:42” you mutter under your breath “seven more hours to go.”

Life has been very difficult for you lately. You have felt the sting of stagnancy at your job,you were denied a New Year bonus at work, and your grandfather recently passed away; that last one is what hurts the most. Growing up you never really had a father figure, your mother was a teenage pregnancy so you were raised primarily by your grandparents. You had grown very attached to your grandfather over the years. It’s only been a month, but you are already starting to forget the sound of his voice. You let out a long sigh and try to force yourself to crunch some numbers for JojaMart. 

“This is pointless” you say in frustration, loud enough for your neighbor to hear. You reach down into your desk drawer and pull out an old crossword puzzle book you had gotten for your grandfather while he was in the nursing home. Every now and then you get the urge to pull out this book, but this time an old, worn letter falls out. Puzzled, you pick it up and look at the front of the envelope: 

“My Dearest Granddaughter”

You rub the symbols, trying to will him to life via his handwriting. A tear rolls down your face and you flip over the envelope to tear open the seal. You pull out a yellow sheet of paper with dark blue lining, “this is grandfather’s parchment” you say breathlessly as you hold it close to your chest. After a moment, you finally gather the nerve to read what the letter says: 

“If you're reading this, you must be in dire need of a change. 

The same thing happened to me, long ago. I'd lost sight of what mattered most in life... real connections with other people and nature. So I dropped everything and moved to the place I truly belong.

I’ve enclosed the deed to that place... my pride and joy: my farm. It’s located in Stardew Valley, on the southern most coast. It’s the perfect place to start your new life.

This was my most precious gift of all, and now it’s yours. I know you’ll honor the family name, my dear. Good luck.

Love, Grandpa ” 

You stare, bewildered at the note in front of you. The timing is impeccable! You smile brightly, even after he is gone he still finds a way to give you what you need; he has always been your advocate, even now. The loneliness that was once plaguing your heart has suddenly lifted, you felt the huge weight of your existence dissolve. You stand up, shut your computer off, and head for the door; nothing can stop you now! You don’t even bother to gather your possessions from your desk, they don’t matter. Nothing matters! The only thing that you care about now is living authentically, and you will achieve that no matter what it takes. 

Your boss shouts at you as you reach for the door, “Hey! What do you think you are doing?! Those numbers need to be crunched and analyzed! Get back to your desk!” 

You pause, only briefly, but decide not to even look back-- after all, you aren’t going that way anymore. 


	2. Novelty

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is the last introductory chapter! So the next chapter we will get into the thick of everything !!
> 
> Feel free to skip to chapter 3

The bus ride to Pelican Town has been long. You are only barely conscious right now because you slept most of the way to your destination. Regaining your consciousness you start to move your toes and hands. Finally you realize you were drooling and you wipe a string of spit from the corner of your mouth. You stretch out as much as you could, longing for the moment you get to stand up and breathe in the fresh air. The only thing you smell right now is the cologne of the man sitting next to you; to say it is overpowering is a litotes. Suddenly, the bus makes a jarring stop, and the bus driver calls out for passengers looking to get off at Pelican town. Adrenaline suddenly rushes through your veins, and any tiredness that you had left in your system was quickly flushed out.

You step out off the bus and are immediately pelted with the smell of freshly cut grass and dandelions. You can’t help but to sit back and absorb the strange sensation; fresh air was not something you came across frequently in the city. You open your eyes and see greenery sprinkled with pink cherry blossom trees. Birds are chirping deep in the background, and you can’t help but reach down to feel the dewy grass.

“Hello!” an unfamiliar, friendly voice shouts at you. “ You must be the girl Mayor Lewis talked to on the phone!”

You look up and see a sea of red hair, practically blinding you. The woman standing in front of you is beautiful, in an extremely natural way; you feel a tinge of envy looking at her. She is dressed in earthy tones, and the piece of hair she has pulled back behind her ear gently outlines her long slender neck. 

“ H-Hello!” you manage to get out, “you must be Robin! Mayor Lewis said you would show me around once I arrived, I had no idea you would be this prompt though!”

Robin smiled sweetly in your direction, “ we try to be as welcoming as we can here in Pelican Town! Let’s head on over to your new home, Mayor Lewis is there now tidying things up for you.”

The walk to your new place was short, just a couple of turns down a dirt road. You don’t say very much on the way there, you are in too much awe of the forest. You trying to remember the last time you saw so much green in one place. 

“...Annnd here we are, your new home!” Robin exclaims as you approach an old, rickety cabin. The exterior is extremely weathered, and the green shutters look as if they have never been closed. The roof is a burnt red, and flows nicely overtop of the structure. To the left of the building there has to be a year’s worth of firewood, ready to go. “Home” you say to yourself.

Mayor Lewis comes out to greet you, and he looks as weathered as your new home. His face is square and wrinkly, and he has a salt and pepper mustache to match his hair. This is definitely not what you pictured when you spoke to him on the phone.

“Alright! you should be all ready to go! I tidied up for you already so all you have to worry about right now is getting some rest! I know you had a long journey here. Oh! I should also mention that if you have anything to sell you can drop it in the box right next to your house, I’ll come by and collect it! Have a great night, and Welcome to Pelican Town!”

You watch as Robin and Mayor Lewis walk away from your cabin. You just then realized that you didn’t even turn around to look at the farm! You whip around and are immediately... horrified. “Oh my gosh!” you shriek, “this farm is a pigsty!” Weeds, rocks, fiber, and trees consume the farm, in fact, you can’t even see a clean patch of land. “ What have I gotten myself into” you say to yourself.

You head into the cabin, defeated, but are pleasantly surprised by the interior. There is a cozy fireplace in the far right corner, and TV that barely gets three channels, a diner table, and a very soft queen bed waiting for you. You throw some wood in the fireplace and get under the sheets of your bed. You really do feel worn out at the moment. There will be plenty of time to introduce yourself tomorrow and start working on the farm. As you think of all of the possibilities the future holds for your new farm, you don’t even notice that you drift off to sleep. That night you are filled with pleasant, hopeful dreams of what is to come.


	3. New to Town

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay this is where stuff starts getting good (: 
> 
> Believe it or not this started as a Harvey Fanfic, but I developed Alex too well that I had to change things around! lol

You jump out of bed, jarred by the sound of a local rooster crowing: _Man, that’s going to take some getting used to_ you say to yourself. You fumble around your new home, trying to piece together an outfit. You decide to wear a green shirt, denim overalls, and brown work boots; this is going to be your brand. You walk over to the mirror and pull your brown hair into two braids, one on each side of your head. Your hair has a natural curl to it that you have never been quite fond of until now. Your beautiful green eyes have a sparkle in them that you hadn’t seen in years. After all of your getting ready, the time is 7:00am, you head outside to get your day started. 

_What to do first?_ you think to yourself. There is so much that needs to be done. Trees need to be chopped down, rocks need to be picked away, and fiber needs to be cleared. You decide to grab your scythe and start clearing away the weeds and grass, after all that takes the least amount of effort. Once you are done you begin to chop down a couple of trees, but your energy is quickly depleted. You go inside to grab a quick drink, and notice that it is already 11:00. You do a quick wash up and head into town to try and mingle with the current residents; your social anxiety is high!

You enter town and it is both bustling and quiet at the same time. The first thing you notice is how well kept the town is, there isn’t a blade of grass out of place. Flower pots and street lamps run rampant throughout the town, and a warm smell of pastries can be taken in through the air. You are incredibly taken back by the serenity you are observing. You look to your right and you notice a little park, so you decide to wonder over. Across the fence there is an elderly woman gardening. You can yell that she was incredibly beautiful as a young woman. Her silver hair is tied neatly into a bun, and she is a vision in red. She stands slightly hunched over, and even from a distance you can smell the faint scent of cookies on her clothing. 

“Hello there!” you say, waving to the woman “I just moved into the farm over yonder, thought I would come to town to meet the residents.”

“Nice to meet you dear, my name is Evelyn. I hope Pelican town has been treating you well!” she replied kindly, wiping some sweat off of her forehead.

“Well, to be honest, you are the first person I met, Evelyn! But the town is absolutely beautiful, I looking forward to meeting everyone else!” you say, “Do you need any help there?”

The old woman giggled “Not right now dear! Plus you look pretty worn out yourself right about now. Can I offer you some lemonade back at my house?

“That sounds delicious! I would love to!” you say eagerly. This socialization stuff isn’t as hard as the internet made it seem. You watch Evelyn gather her belongings when she suddenly looks up, but this time she looks behind you. She raises her hand to wave and calls out “Good Afternoon Doctor! Come over here and meet the newest member of our community!”

“Good Afternoon, Evelyn!” his voice rang out in a singsong manner, “Always a pleasure seeing you on my lunch breaks! And who is this?”

You turn around to see a tall, older gentleman towering behind you. He has thick, wavy hair that defines his face well. His distinguished features were staring at you, he was a handsome man in his own way. 

“Well it is a pleasure to meet you, I’m Dr. Harvey, but please just address me as Harvey! No need for titles” he smiles at you. 

“I was just about to take this young woman by my house to grab some lemonade, she has been working hard all morning, care to join us Harvey?” Evelyn asks.

“That is awful tempting, but unfortunately I cannot take a long lunch break today; definitely a rain check” Harvey replies, nodding in reassurance.

“Absolutely, Harvey!” Evelyn replied sweetly, now addressing you she says “come on dear, let's head over to my place!” she makes a hand gesture to usher you a long. 

You look back Harvey and shoot him the nicest smile you could muster. “See you around!” you exclaim.

“Definitely! Stop by the clinic and I will set you up with an appointment for a check-up! Don’t overexert yourself on the farm and take care of yourself.” 

The entire walk to Evelyn’s house you were given an enthusiastic tour of town. She showed you where the Saloon was and the local store that was located right next to Harvey’s clinic. She showed you all of her garden’s that Mayor Lewis had put her in charge of; they truly were beautiful. Eventually you walk up to her cozy, blue abode. You walk in the front door and are immediately pelted with the smell of freshly baked cookies. In that moment, you knew that this place would become a second home to you. 

“Hey guys! I am home with a guest!” Evelyn shouts while motioning you towards the kitchen.

At the kitchen table you see an older gentleman sitting in a wheelchair, his face full of lines from years of frowning. He has salt and pepper hair and a bald spot right on the top of his head. He turns and looks at you, but only mumbles something under his breath. 

“This is my husband, George. Don’t mind him, he can be grumpy.” She says, winking in his direction.

George looks at you and rebuttals, “If you came here for peace and quiet you won’t find it, not with my wife around!” George then wheeled himself into the living room to go watch TV. 

Evelyn let out a sigh, “I wish he would go outside and get some fresh air instead of sitting in front of that damned television set all day.” 

You can tell that she is upset, so you decide to change the subject, “Hey! where are the cups, let me help you out.”

Evelyn points to a cupboard and you smile and nod. Reaching for two glasses you hear someone else enter the home, “I’m home! Sorry, I went out for a jog.” You hear footsteps and eventually they stop in the kitchen. Once you are able you turn around to see an incredibly fit man standing in front of you; he was herculean. He had thick and tousled brown hair, and his eyes were a piercing green against his smooth, golden complexion.  A noteworthy jaw curved gracefully around and the strength of his neck showed in the cords of muscle that formed his body; thick arms, defined thighs and calves, and a firm chest and abdomen.

“Hi.” You say almost breathlessly.

A grin now softened his hard face as he looked in Evelyn’s direction,”Hey, Grandma.” Walking over to her, he placed a kiss on her cheek. 

“Alex, dear! I want for you to meet the new farmer that just moved in!” she exclaimed and she guided him over in your direction. You never felt this way before. Your breath felt sharp as you inhaled, and your throat felt as if it were closing. 

“Nice to meet you, I’m Alex” he said, reaching a hand out for you to shake it. You reach back and before you could think his large strong hand was holding yours. His eyes stared into yours and a grin graced his face once again. 

“Nice to meet you, Alex” you say smiling in his direction, in awe that you were able to form a coherent sentence. 

“Would you like to join us for lemonade?” Evelyn asks her grandson, gently placing a hand on his bare shoulder looking up at him. 

“You know, I think I will join you all today.” He replies, never taking his eyes off of you. 


	4. Inflammation

Lemonade with Evelyn, her husband George, and grandson Alex was just the thing you needed to get your mind off of your new found farm anxieties-- temporarily. 

But now that, that excursion was all over, and you were home alone heating your muscles, your mind couldn’t help but wander back to Alex. You think about his hands, and how wonderful it would be to have his fingers trace the outline of your physique. You think about his lips, even from a distance you could tell they were soft and you imagine what it would feel like to have them pressed against your neck

“Ugh, stop it!” you mutter under your breath, trying to shake off these heated emotions. 

Defeated from your own discouragement, you head to bed. Your achy muscles confine you to one position on the bed. It is difficult to move, but eventually you drift off to sleep-- tomorrow is another day. 

You are jarred awake once again by the local rooster that roams around your farm, but this time you are in a world of pain. You took your farming job a little too seriously yesterday, and forgot to listen to the boundaries of your body. Looks like you may actually have to take a visit to the clinic today to make sure everything is in order. You still have three hours until the clinic opens, but you can barely make it out of bed, you decide to ice your muscles until 8:30am.

*8:30am*

You slowly get dressed and make your way to the clinic. Every step you take feels like a fire is ignited in your body; you have never known this kind of pain. It took you a little bit longer to get to the clinic than expected, so you arrive at 9:30am. You are greeted by, what you think to be, one of the most gorgeous women you have ever laid your eyes on. Her skin glowed like the stars, and her body in her nurses uniform was almost erotic. 

“Good Morning! You must be the new farmer! My name is Maru. Are you having an emergency?” she asks.

“No, I don’t think I would say it was an emergency. I am in a lot of pain thought from my first day on the farm yesterday though.” you say back to the goddess staring at you.

“I can imagine, I can’t even begin to empathize with the work you encounter daily. Let me go get the Doctor.” She moved through the door behind the counter effortlessly, her legs one thousand miles long.

While you are alone in the waiting room, you stare blankly at the posters for flu shots and warnings about different cardiac problems. Your adrenaline is high as you hear footsteps approaching. Dr. Harvey makes his way through the waiting room towards you.

“Hey there! Long time no see! I’m sorry to hear you aren’t feeling well, follow me back into my office and I will examine you.” Harvey says as he reaches a hand out to help you up.

You reach a little too fast for his hand, that you wince in pain from the sharp, sudden movement. 

“Easy there” Harvey says in a soothing voice. “Here let me help you up.”

Harvey reaches to put his arm around you and hoist you up. You notice that the doctor smells faintly of coffee and...... _is that....pickles?_

Harvey helped you sit down in one of the chairs in his office. He straddled a chair in front of you while he spoke, but you had no idea what he said because you were too focused on not crying from the pain.

Harvey got up off of the chair and said “So I’m going to prescribe you a low dose of a corticosteroid to help reduce the inflammation in your muscles. This will help you assimilate into farm life better, at least temporarily.”

Harvey handed you a prescription and walked you to the front of the clinic. “Remember what I said! Take it easy, don’t overexert yourself. I don’t like seeing my patients in this much pain!”

“I will doctor, thank you very much.” you say, still trying to not look visibly in pain “See you around!”

“See you around!” he gave you a genuine wave and smile. 


	5. Down Time

The past couple of days have been hard. You have strict doctor’s orders to take it easy, and you don’t intend on disobeying those orders. Instead, you have been in close contact with Evelyn, and she has been sending her grandson Alex over to help you around the farm in the mean time. You love Evelyn dearly already, you have even grown quite fond of George, but Alex was still an uncertainty. He was so arrogant and full of himself, but he seemed like a decent guy deep down.

_Ugh, why does he always have to work with his shirt off_ , you roll your eyes. He was, indeed, your least favorite type of person. 

“Hey Alex!” you call out from your window, “Want to come in for some iced tea?”

“Sure! Let me just finish up here quick. Be in, in a minute!” he shouts back to you with his husky voice. 

You move towards the fridge, grab the pitcher of tea and two cups out of your cupboard. you place everything down on the table, but notice that the cups look kind of grimy from the big move. you head over to the sink and submerge them in soapy water. While you were doing this, Alex somehow snuck in and was sitting at the table watching you. You recognized the look in his eye, and it starts a fire in your cheeks.

\-------

_Wow...._ Alex thought to himself, _she is so incredibly beautiful_. Alex sat down at the table, you hadn’t noticed him barge in. He intended to keep you in the dark, he liked watching your candid movements. You were dressed plainly, but your movements were painfully graceful-- even doing the dishes. In this moment, Alex felt so lucky; he wondered how many people in your life get to see this part of you. 

\-------

“Oh! I didn’t even hear you come in!” you place the freshly washed glass down on the table. “Here let me pour you some tea.” You say reaching for the pitcher.

Alex stops your hand from reaching the pitcher, your arm feeling so incredibly fragile in his masculine grasp. “Don’t worry about it, sit down and rest. I have no problem helping myself.”

You sit down across from him and watch as he pours you some tea, _what a beautiful fool_. You analyze his appearance: His dark hair is cut extremely fashionable, even throughall of the sweat and dirt. His body looks as if it was chiseled from stone and his tan was incredible, even in the spring. His tan makes his green eyes pop off of his face, as they pierce through you.

“So new girl” he starts, “how are you liking Pelican Town?”

“Well unfortunately I haven’t been able to see much of it due to my injuries. But it seems charming! Your grandmother takes excellent care of the gardens here, that really adds to the aesthetic.” you reply matter-of-factly. 

“Have you met any of the bachelors in town yet, you know, beside me?” he sips his tea, anxiously peaking over the rim waiting for your reply.

“Well, I have only met a handful of people. Only your grandparents, Maru, and Harvey.” You say trying to keep your voice steady. 

“Ah yes, the Doctor. He is Pelican Town’s oldest bachelor, he and Maru kind of have a thing going on anyway. Good guy though.” he looks nonchalant. _Doctor Harvey and Maru! What a power couple._

Surprisingly he continued, “Harvey is always up bright and early to get coffee at the Saloon. Gus let’s him in before hours. I guess you can say he has a drinking problem.” Alex says jokingly. 

_That explains the smell! I’ll have to bring him a coffee as a thank you gesture_ , you think. You devise a plan to try and get to his clinic tomorrow, you don’t suspect that it will be difficult to get there tomorrow thanks to Alex.

“Well Alex, I think I’m going to try to grab a nap. I’m not really feeling myself right now. Thank you for everything!” you reach for some gold, but once again his gigantic hand grabs your dainty arm. _If he really wanted to, he could totally snap my arm in half._

“Don’t worry about it. I’m happy to help you.” He says almost solemnly. “I’ll see you tomorrow then.”

Alex got up from your kitchen table, elongating his body. The sweat gave his skin a dewy look. He reached for his shirt and pulled it over his head, then made his way to thedoor. You watched him walk down the dirt path back to town from your window. He was so incredibly kind and you knew he had some feelings for you, but you were certain you would never be able to give him what he wanted. You felt a sting of sympathy for him as he disappeared from your view.


	6. Cookies

You wake up from what had to be only two hours of sleep. You laid awake all night tossing and turning, thinking about the man that you only recently met. You roll out of bed, with surprisingly more energy than you had expected to have. Wow those steroids really must have kicked in. You get dressed and pull out the coffee maker that your grandfather had once purchased for you. You brew a strong cup of coffee and add a dash of vanilla soy milk to the cup, your sure the Doctor will appreciate the health conscious choice. With a sigh, you make your way out of your cabin and towards the clinic. 

The walk there went a lot faster than you had anticipated. With each step you took on the dirt road, adding more and more cortisol to your bloodstream. You approach the clinic right at 9:00am, reach for the door and make your way inside. The sunlight pouring through the windows makes the waiting room look immaculate. 

“Hey! Good Morning!” a silken voice calls out. “Are you doing well?” the voice has now morphed into a concerned tone.

You look up and there he is, standing in the middle of the doorway. “Good Morning, doctor” you say louder than expected, “I just wanted to drop off some homemade coffee and say thank you for your hospitality the other day. I am almost feeling myself again!” you shoot him a kind smirk.

Harvey seemed almost taken back, almost in disbelief. He eventually managed to thank you and he made sure that you were aware of his appreciation several times over. “I know it’s crazy to say, but this means a lot to me!” He says to you as he walks you to the door. “Thank you for stopping by, you made my day!” And there it was, one of those genuine Harvey smiles again. 

“It was no problem, anytime Harvey! I’ll see you around.”you say as you exit the building. You decide to walk over to Evelyn’s house to say good morning to everyone. You turn and head in the direction of Evelyns house, happy with the good deed that you had just done.

You arrive at Evelyn’s house and you knock on the door, to your surprise you are greeted by a green haired woman. She appeared to be a little bit older, but there was something youthful about her spirit. “Come in! I’m Caroline, Evelyn was just exchanging cookie recipes with me. You must be the newcomer, right?”

You smile and nod your head. After your introduction you both head toward the kitchen, making small talk about the weather. You reach the kitchen and there you see Evelyn covered in flour. George is in the living room, you wave to him, but he doesn’t have time to talk because his favorite TV program is on. You secretly love George and his grumpiness, it warms your heart in a way.

“What’s cooking good looking?” you jest at Evelyn.

“Oh zip it!” she laughs back at you. “The flour bag got away from me!”

You walk over and pick up a recipe card, it reads: Family Famous Cookies (From Scratch!). “These cookies sound delicious Evelyn! Mind if I borrow this recipe? 

You look at Evelyn, she thinks for a minute and then she looks at you sweetly and says “Of course dear! We have gotten pretty close, I trust you with my family’s secret recipe!” she hands you blank recipe card and a pen, you begin diligently copying down the instructions. 

All of a sudden Alex shows up around the corner. “Ugh... Can’t talk right now.” he says in his grandmother’s direction, heads over to the fridge, grabs a bottle of water, chugs it, and then heads back to his room. He is once again shirtless. 

Alex comes and goes and you look over at Evelyn. She seems flustered, you can’t help to ask what is wrong. 

“My grandson spends so much time working out. I wish he would spend more time studying and growing as an individual.” she said sadly. 

“I’m sure it’s difficult to watch him workout all day, but have faith that he is doing something he is passionate about. If he follows his heart I am sure things will work out for him” you assured her.

“You’re right. It’s so easy to worry about him as his grandmother.” she replies, “Between you and me, I think he has a little crush on you” she winks.

“Oh I don’t think so! We have just been spending a lot of time together on my farm while I’m healing.” you say, but you don’t believe a word. You are pretty certain Alex has feelings for you, and that makes you concerned. 

\--------

Alex turned the corner, but stayed a smidge longer to overhear what his grandmother was saying about him. He should have been mortified that she brought up his crush on you. Rather, he was astounded by the kind words you said about him. Not too many people in town have faith in him, not even Haley, his on and off again girlfriend. His heart was soaring in his chest. Alex returned to his room and proceeded to have the greatest workout he has had in months. 

\----------

You try to get your mind off of the potential mess that is staring you in the face. You turn to Caroline who is just about to leave “Hey wait up!” you say suddenly. “Let me walk you home, it’s getting late after all.” 

Caroline happily accepts your offer, and you both leave Evelyn’s cozy home. You swear sometimes her home feels more home than your own. On your walk to Carolines house to question her about, well, herself. You learn that she is married to Pierre, the local grocer, and has a daughter Abigail, who apparently has purple hair. She often conducts dance aerobics classes in the same building as her husbands business, which she happily invites you to attend at some point. As if I don’t get enough exercise already, you think. 

After you drop her off you head back home for the night to get some rest. Today was regenerative, you definitely needed it!


	7. Wounds

You wake up this morning, shortly before the rooster was able to jar you conscious. You felt extremely well rested and you barely had any muscle pain. You were supposed to rest another day, but you figured you would be able to help Alex out a bit on the farm today. You feel bad that he has been doing all of your work lately.

You head outside and you already see Alex making his way over towards you. You throw up your hand to wave at him. The wave jolted Alex into, for him, a light jog; for you it would have been a full on sprint. “Morning!” he said, reaching your side. “How are you feeling?”

“I feel much better, I thought maybe I would help you out a little but today, if that was okay with you?” you inquire. 

“Absolutely, just try not to push yourself too hard.” Alex said as he was taking off his shirt. 

Ugh, here we go again. You and Alex head into what was once a chaotic wilderness, but is now mostly cleared, patch of land. He certainly was able to do an excellent job, you were throughly impressed. You both work side by side, helping each other out as the day goes by. 

Right before lunch you hear Alex cry out in pain, “Ow... ugh.. fuck!” You rush over you him, and he badly cut his pectoral muscle on one of the tree branches that was sticking up. 

“Oh, Yoba! Come inside and let me clean that up for you!” you say to him urgently, motioning for him to follow you to your cabin.

You get inside and Alex sits down at the dinner table. You rustle through some drawers and find bandages and antibiotic cream. You grab a wash rag from your bathroom and wet it with some warm water. You walk over to Alex and you stand between his legs and gently pat his injured chest with the rag. Droplets of water rush down his muscular physique. He winces, even though you can obviously tell that he is in horrible pain. 

“You know, it’s okay to feel things, Alex.” you say to him in a soothing voice. “You don’t have to worry about me thinking less of you for giving into your emotions. It’s a natural human thing.”

“I’m fine.” he says sharply, and leaves it at that. You can tell that what you said is slightly resonating within him. Hmmm, maybe he isn’t all brawn and no brain.

Alex’s eyes watch you the entire time. You glance up and lock eyes with the beautiful man sitting in front of you. Neither of you say anything, you just stare intently at one another. His eyes scan your face, and you swear he started to lean into you. You feel your breathing sharply increase and then all of a sudden, there was a loud knock at your door.

You go to answer the door, and are relieved when you see someone standing on the other side of the door. “H-Harvey?” you say, totally astonished, yet happy.

“Hey there” he says, reaching his arm behind his head to rub his neck. “I thought I would stop by on my lunch break to return your travel mug. You certainly know how to put together an excellent cup of coffee!”

“Oh well thank you!” trying not to look like a deer in headlights. Suddenly, you have the realization that Harvey’s timing couldn’t be anymore perfect. “Oh my gosh! Your timing is perfect. Alex has been helping me on the farm while I heal from my muscle fatigue, but today he cut himself on some firewood-- would you be able to check him out quick?”

“Oh, certainly!” Harvey said, almost sounding enthusiastic.

Harvey made his way over to Alex, and took a look at his wound. The whole time Alex was glaring a hole through Harvey. You figured that Alex would have been much more interested in you tending to his wounds, but you are incredibly thankful Harvey was here to help; Harvey patched up Alex in no time.

“Well that should do it.” finishing up the final bandage on Alex’s chest; “Good as new!” Harvey said, you thought you detected a hint of snark. 

“Well guys, I have to head back to the clinic. Alex you should stop by in a couple of days to make sure that the wound is healing properly.” Turning to you he says with a warm smile, “It was great to see you again.”

And just like that, Harvey left. You and Alex didn’t speak for the rest of the day, but finished up the work on the farm. You asked him in for tea after the job was done like always, but he politely refused and ventured home. I wonder what that boy has been thinking all day.


	8. Egg Festival

You have ben spending a great deal of time tending to your farm. Now that Alex’s time helping you out was over, you have been working endlessly through the light hours of the day. Today, however, you were invited by the mayor to attend the Egg Festival in town. You aren’t necessarily sure what that entails, but you are excited to go and mingle with everyone. Your farm work has kept you so busy that you hadn’t had the time to meet anyone else. 

You roll out of bed and shower, feeling the warm water rush off of your body. When you are done, you walk over to the steamy mirror and rub it with your towel, revealing your beautiful complexion. You stare at yourself for a minute, judging your appearance harshly, and then make your way to your bedroom. You dry your hair and add some loose curls with hair straightener. The decide to wear a powder blue chiffon dress that your mother gave you before moving. It fits your form perfectly on your torso, and then loosely falls around your thighs. You step back over to the mirror, and it becomes apparent that some of the hard work you have been doing on the farm has paid off. your form seemed tighter and more toned. 

Once 9:00am hits, you make your way over to the festival. Anxiety hits you when you arrive because you realize that you only know a handful of people. You gaze around you taking in your surroundings. The pastel green tablecloths that drape over the tables look beautiful against the pink cherry blossoms. The scene is almost too beautiful.

You notice George and Evelyn, and you breathe a sigh of relief. You make your way over to their table. You give them a friendly wave and say “Happy Egg Festival, guys!”

“Oh dear! We are so happy you can make it! You look lovely,” Evelyn starts, nudging her husband “doesn’t she George?”

“Yeah, yeah. I guess so.” George grumbles under his breath. It is pretty obvious that he does not want to be attending. 

“You look nervous, dear. What’s on your mind?” Evelyn asks honestly.

“I am just nervous about meeting everyone. I haven’t had the chance to meet anyone else since I have been working so diligently.” 

“Well this is the perfect place to meet everyone! Let me grab Alex and I’ll have him introduce you to everyone.”Evelyn motions towards her grandson.

“Oh no that’s okay, I’m sure I’ll--” you aren’t able to finish your sentence, Evelyn is moving faster than you have ever seen her move towards her grandson. 

Up until now, you hadn’t had the chance to find Alex. When you look over at him, he is standing in a literal ray of sunshine. The sun is glistening off of his skin and emitting a golden light that radiates off of him. He’s so beautiful. He’s wearing his green letterman jacket and jeans that hug him in all of the right places. A low grumbling voice breaks you out of your trance.

“Take a picture!” George shouts at you, words laced with snark. 

All you can do is blush. You try to make up an excuse as to what you were doing, but you come up empty. Flustered, you push your hair behind your ears. You were too busy trying to act natural that Evelyn and Alex snuck up on your side.

“Oh!” you say reaching to place a hand on your chest, catching your breath. Way to look like a normal human being. 

“Sorry, dear! Didn’t mean to startle you!” Evelyn says in a soothing voice. “Alex has agreed to take you around and introduce you to all of the Pelican Town residents!” She smiles in your direction, almost deviously. 

You look at Alex and he returns your gaze. Time seems to stand still while you stare into his green eyes. His eyes scan your entire body, drawing an electric sensation in your stomach. Say ‘thank you’.

Breaking your own trance, you start “Thanks, Alex. Long time no see!” reaching a hand behind your neck to rub it anxiously. 

“Long time for sure, farmer. You ready to get this over with?” he replies so cooly.

“Absolutely!” the words come out of your mouth a little more enthusiastically than you would have liked. 

You and Alex walk around, mingling with the local residents. He introduces you to Sam, Sebastian, and Abigail first. You can see yourself becoming very close to those three. They all have vastly different personalities and they compliment one another well. After that you make your way over to Jodi, who is struggling to wrangle her son, Vincent, up. She seems very busy, but kind!

“She seems like she has her hands full!” you say to Alex, trying your hardest to make conversation with him. Things have been pretty silent between the two of you since the last time you saw him on the farm.

“Yeah, she does.” he says back to you, no interest whatsoever in keeping a conversation with you.

“Hey, Babe!” You hear a high pitched drone come from behind you. 

You turn around and see a beautiful young woman running towards you and Alex. Her hair is light and golden, and her body is incredible. Every step she takes even you can’t stop from staring at her perky breasts. 

Alex looks at you, and then back at the girl who had just approached you. He almost looks frustrated. “Hey, Hayley.” he says to her as she possessively wraps her delicate arm around his waist.

“Who is this?” She says with a flip of her hair, looking you up and down. 

“This is the new farmer, Hayley. Grandma wanted me you introduce her to everyone.” he mutters as he looks down at his feet. 

“Oh, ew. Aren’t you dirty, like, all of the time?” She barks at you.

You are completely taken off guard. To start, you had no idea that Alex had a girlfriend, nor did you predict that she was such a bitch. Probably why he never brought her up. 

With a smile, you reply, “Yeah it’s not so bad. I like to think we all make our own purpose in life-- this just so happens to be mine.” 

A fake laugh escapes her lips, and thankfully you hear a familia voice call out behind you, grabbing your attention. When you turn to look, you notice Harvey gliding over towards you. 

“Hey, Doc!” you call out, happy that a familiar face is here to break the tension. When he reaches you, you both exchange smile. Alex looks less than pleased.

“What’s going on over here?” Harvey inquires sweetly.

“Oh! Alex was just introducing me to everyone in town. I hadn’t had much time since I moved in.” you reply to Harvey. 

“Excellent!” he says. Turning to look at Alex he starts again “Why don’t we let these love birds have some alone time? I can happily take over for Alex!” 

You turn to look at Alex and his mouth is clenched incredibly tight, his face is red as well. You don’t give him an opportunity to respond, “That sounds great! Let’s go!”

You and Harvey start to walk away and you decided to turn and yell to Alex, “Thanks for everything! Have fun you two!”

You lean over and whisper to Harvey, “Thank you so much, I am forever in debt to you.”

The kind doctor just laughs and says “No problem! What are friends for!?”   
You and Harvey make your way to a table and you see Maru sitting there. She looks up at you and gets noticeably excited, “Hey, stranger! How are you feeling?”

“Pretty well, Maru! How about yourself?” you say sincerely.

“I am also well! To what do we owe the honor of having you join us today?” she leans in and places her chin on her hands.

Before you can say anything, Harvey interjects, “I rescued her from Alex and Hayley. Our friend here looked very uncomfortable so I figured we could keep her company until the end of the festival?”

An extremely excited squeal left Maru’s throat before she replied, “I’d love that!” She reached over the table to grab your hand, “I am so sorry you caught up in the middle of their nonsense.”

You muster up as much confidence as you can to reply, “It’s not big deal, really. To be honest I didn’t know that Alex had a girlfriend, he never mentioned her.” 

Maru let out a scoff and Harvey turned to you and said, “They really aren’t that serious. They are always breaking up and getting back together. It’s almost like they feel obligated to date each other because they are both objectively attractive.” 

You can’t help but look over at Alex and Hayley. To your surprise, when you look over, Alex is staring right back at you. The connection doesn’t last long, Alex looks away before you can even smile at him. Harvey and Maru are staring intently at you when you turn back to look at them.

You feel a light blush bloom on your cheeks. “You like him, don’t you?” They both say in unison. 

“Honestly guys, it’s just a physical attraction.” you reply back to them.

They both look at each other and smile, “Sure it is.”


	9. Sleepless Evening

The rest of the Egg Festival was uneventful. You watched as Abigail and Vincent fought it out in the egg hunt; of course Abigail won. Maru walked you back to your house and you promised her that you would catch lunch with her on her break in the upcoming week. 

Now you were alone and you couldn’t stop thinking about your encounter with Alex and his apparent girlfriend. _What does he see in her_? It didn’t matter, you aren’t actually even sure why you are contemplating it. 

You move over to your couch to watch some TV, the local cooking channel was on “Queen of the Sauce.” You thought it would be good to get your mind off of everything. But you can barely make it past the opening without thinking about Alex. The last time he worked on your farm, you were certain that he was leaning to kiss you. _Or was it all in my head? Ugh_! You flail on the couch, but no matter which position you take, you cannot seem to get comfortable. You reach for your boots and slide them on your leg. You need to take a walk to clear your head from all of this nonsense. 

You make your way into town and all is quiet. The lights are off in all of the buildings, and the sparsely placed street lights are the only thing illuminating your path. The only sound that can be heard is your gentle breath and footsteps on the ground. 

“Can’t sleep?” a husky voice growls.

You look over, and much to your surprise, it’s Alex. “Yeah, just trying to get used to the quiet still. It’s hard to sleep without police sirens and screaming.” you say, lying through your teeth.

Alex motions for you to sit down next to him on his grandmother’s porch. You don’t even have to tell your legs to move, before you can comprehend what is happening you are sitting next to him. Several silent moments pass before you decide to break the ice, “Hey have you been alright? You aren’t your typical self.”

“I’m fine, yeah. I just have a lot of things on my mind lately. Trying to figure stuff out for myself.” he replies, and you believe him. “I’m sorry if I have seemed weird, I didn’t intend to come off that way.” 

“You don’t need to apologize, Alex. If you ever need to talk you can always stop by my farm.” you say wholeheartedly. 

He looks at you and nods, “Thanks.” Another moment of silence passed before anything was said, this time, he broke the silence.

“Hey, I’m really sorry for the way that Hayley acted today. You shouldn’t be talked to like that.” his hand was intertwined in his thick brown hair, scratching anxiously. You can tell he doesn’t talk about his feelings frequently. 

“You don’t need to apologize for your girlfriend, Alex. I had a great day regardless!” You say, trying to reassure him.

Alex goes to say something, but you are both interrupted by Hayley. She peaked her head out the door and said “Are you done thinking now? Can you come back to bed?” clearly annoyed, and also totally ignoring you. 

Alex let out a long sigh, “Yeah, coming.” Turning to look at you. He reached for your hand helping you off of the step. You place your small, fragile hand in his; once again he can totally crush it if he wanted to. “I’ll see you around, farm girl. Have a safe walk home.” 

Defeated and now totally exhausted you make your way back to the farm. _I thought Harvey and Maru said they weren’t serious_? You had been foolish to ever think that you and Alex had a special connection. You should have kept your distance from him. You knew when you first met him that you weren’t compatible, but to chose to ignore your instincts. He was just the first attractive guy to pay attention to you, so you assure yourself that that’s why you had this little crush. _I just need to focus on my work on the farm. Fuck Alex_. 

When your farmhouse is in view you sprint towards it. Making your way through the front door you race over to your bed, kick off your boots, and lay your head down on the pillow. Before you know it you drift off to sleep, gradually leaving the drama of the day behind you.


	10. Truth Serum

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is long! I kind of got caught up writing it at Starbucks ^_^
> 
> Please enjoy!

You feel almost hungover when you wake up. You must have cried yourself to sleep last night, you just don’t remember. You stumble out of bed and head over to your bathroom, immediately reaching for the hot water handle on the shower. You close the door and let the steam consume your body as you sit on the toilet lid. . You grab a wash rag and ferociously wipe away the crust that has formed on your eyes. You hop in the shower and scrub away any remaining feelings that you may have for Alex with your Moroccan rose shea sugar scrub. 

After your shower you head into your bedroom and lay on your bed in nothing but your towel, staring up at the ceiling. You extend your left arm up, drop it to the bed, and then you repeat with your right arm. You don’t feel _real_ today. You are searching for any possible outlet to assimilate yourself to reality once again. 

Getting dressed was a chore, but you managed. Your hair looked more mangled than ever, partly because you spent the morning laying on your bed. Farming and clearing your grandfather’s land was the last thing on your mind, but you knew you had to persevere. You open the door to the outside and are blinded by a ray of sun, your eyes still feeling very much so swollen. You head over to your cauliflower plants and water them, admiring the beauty that is nature. You can’t believe the happiness you feel looking at the tiny little cauliflower buds. _I made this_.You understand why your grandfather moved here once more. There is something so rewarding about farming and seeing the bounty of your hard labor. With each crop you went to, you found life being breathed into you slowly. By the end of the kale crops you felt like a totally different person than when you woke up. 

The rest of the day was pretty easy and you had cleared another decent portion of your land, stopping every-now-and-then to craft a field snack from the seeds you were finding. You head back into your house and freshen up a bit. Suddenly, a phone call comes in. You walk over to the phone on the wall and answer it, “Hello?” you say unsure.

“Hey! What are you doing right now?” a familiar voice rings out from the other end. 

“Oh hey Maru. Not too much, just came in from the farm-- why do you ask?”

“Meet me at the Saloon tonight around 6!” and before you have a chance to reply, the line goes dead.

_Nice tactic, Maru_. She probably received your number from her mother, Robin. You don’t really feel like going out tonight, but you and Maru have been coming close since the Egg Festival; you also really enjoy the company of her boyfriend too. Plus, you worked hard today, you definitely earned a beer.... or a pizza..... or both tonight! You check the clock -- 4:30. Yoba, you barely have anytime at all to get ready.

You frantically hop out of your dirty close and toss them in the direction of your hamper. You grab the first thing you can find and throw it on: black jeans with holes in the knees and a matching black t-shirt. You grab a pair of sneakers and your jean jacket and you are almost out the door when you remember that your hair looks less than desire-able. _Fuck, I forgot_. You decide to throw it back into a ponytail and throw a hat over it. Now, after one more check in the mirror, you are out the door on your way to the Saloon.

The road into town has become very familiar to you, you know which patch of grass signals you being halfway there, and you know which oak tree signals the end of your journey. You head into town and make your way to the Saloon. Inside you find Shane in the corner, away from human interaction. At one table you see Pam, who looks as if she is already several pale ales deep into the evening. A blue haired woman and Gus stand behind the counter, but there are no signs of Maru. You decide to take a seat at the counter and wait. You order a pale ale and a bar pizza, you figure if Maru forced you to come out you’ll force her to eat unhealthily; _an eye for an eye_.

The woman with blue hair walks over to you, she seems incredibly sweet: “Hey, you are the new farmer, right?”

“Yes, I am! It’s nice to meet you...” you trail off waiting for the blue-haired barmaid to reveal her name. 

“Oh! I’m Emily. I’ve actually heard a lot about you from my sister, Haley.” she says almost solemnly. “I am really sorry that she treated you so poorly. I overheard her talking to Alex about the whole situation.”

“Oh.... it’s totally fine,” you say, “everyone else has been very welcoming, so her negativity wasn’t taken to heart.” You really don’t want to be having this conversation fright now. _Where the FUCK is Maru_?

“Well that makes me incredibly happy!” she replies with a beautiful smile, “I am not necessarily fond of my sister either. It’s strange, isn’t it?” she asks.

“Excuse me?” you say, confused at the question she just asked you.

Emily let out a giggle, “that her and I are related.” 

You let out a throaty chuckle, “You got that right, Emily!” You sincerely mean that too. Emily reminds you of your best friend in high school, she is incredibly down to earth and genuine as a human being. 

“I hope my sister won’t prevent you from becoming friends with me! I think you are pretty cool.” she smiles as she tucks a piece of hair behind your ear. 

“Absolutely not!” you say to her as you are both interrupted by Gus.

“Emily, you have other customers, you know.” he says half-joking, half-serious. 

“I’m so sorry boss!” Emily says fumbling for her notepad and paper, “I’m on it!” she turns to look at you and says, “Don’t be a stranger! Stop by my house for a visit sometime!” 

“Sure thing, Emily! It was a pleasure to meet you!” you smile at her, and she nods and smiles back in your direction before taking off like a rocket to all of her waiting tables. Since you two have been talking several other residents had walked in, but still no Maru. You glance over at the clock-- 6:13. _I rush to get ready and of course she’s late_. Then, like a raging storm, Maru bursts through the door screaming apologies in your direction. 

“I am so incredibly sorry! I made a breakthrough on one of the science projects I was working on and I couldn’t leave until all of my calculations were finished please forgive me!” she pleads with you totally out of breath.

You laugh, Maru is a charming mad scientist and you can’t help but adore her for it, “It’s okay, Maru! I ordered us some pizza and Emily was here to keep me company while I waited.”

“Pizza?” she asks, giving you a semi-sarcastic/serious look.

“Yes,” you say matter-of-factly, “it’s unhealthy and you are eating it because you made me wait.”you finish with a wink. 

Maru just let out a hearty laugh, she knew it was a fair trade off. You spent the evening talking about everything. You learned that she was a total nerd in high school, as were you. You assured her that you would have definitely would have been friends back then too. She talked to you about her brother Sebastian and how her parents were too hard on him. She feels badly about the situation because she is certain that he resents her for following through with a career as a nurse. Eventually your conversation moved on to romantic relationships. She was madly in love with Harvey, and that warmed your heart. They were both so intelligent and kind, they truly were the perfect pair. At this point you had reached the end of your pizza, surprisingly, Maru had more than you did. You both felt slightly tipsy as well, neither of you are used to drinking and that one pale ale you ordered seemed to push you both over the edge. 

“So....” she said, “you and Alex, huh?”

You are completely floored by her question. If she had asked this question before your pale ale you would have certainly been able to brush it off, unfortunately that was not the case. The pale ale you had consumed was acting as a sort of truth serum. “Yeah, I really like him, Maru.” you say in a breathless manner, staring at the shelves in front of you. “ I don’t know why, either. He is the exact kind of person I usually dislike.” you say to her, words spewing out of your mouth with no filter. “ But I can’t help but feel like there is something....deeper to him. When he looks at me my feelings makes sense.”

At this point, Maru bursted out laughing. _Oh jee, thanks_. “Your feelings aren’t supposed to make sense!” she says, still incredibly giggly. “Plus, Alex is a great guy. He helps out a lot around the community, and he is a total sweetheart to his grandparents!” she says looking at you seriously. “And don’t get me started on his appearance.” she reached out and grabbed your shoulder, trying to remain serious but giving way to more laughter again. _God, she is a giggly drunk_. “Oh Yoba, don’t tell Harvey. He wouldn’t be mad but I know he is insecure about his appearance!” 

“Tell Harvey what?” you say with a sly smile.

“That I think Alex is attractive.” she says back at you, totally seriously this time. Maru was extremely intelligent, but common sense and sarcasm went right over her head. 

“It was a joke Maru.” You say now melting into a puddle of your own laughter, Maru joined in with you. 

Unfortunately it was getting kind of late, you both look at the clock and and frown. “Guess we should get going, we both have work tomorrow.” You nod in agreement. You sincerely enjoyed your time out with Maru. It was exactly the kind of therapy you needed at the moment. You both walk out together, and you bump into Harvey on your way out. 

“Hey you two!” he says with a smile. “I was coming to pick you up and walk you home, Maru!” 

“Thanks, Dad!” she says, uncontrollably laughing.

“You told me to come for you if it passed a certain time!” he said, blushing. Maru was right, he was insecure about himself. Harvey reached out to grab Maru’s hand. Instead she wrapped her arm around his and laid her head on his arm. Harvey smiles and reaches down to place a kiss on her forehead. In that moment you feel slightly envious of what they have, they truly do care about one another. You can’t help but smile. 

You decide to make a move to leave, “See you guys around! Take care of her Harv!” you say with a wave. They both wave at you and Maru shouts, “I love you!”

“I love you too” you say laughing to yourself. _She’s so drunk_. 

You turn the corner around the Saloon in the direction of Evelyn’s house, hoping to maybe catch a glance of Alex in his window. _Man, I’m also drunk_. When you turn the corner you are shocked to actually see Alex standing at a dog pen, talking to his furry friend. 


	11. Dusty

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Guys, I am off today and my boyfriend is at work, so I am sitting at Starbucks letting the muses speak to me! Here is another chapter for you all!
> 
> This chapter kind of is personal for me! The story that the farmer tells is actually my own! So now you can all understand why I have connected with Alex's character so deeply!
> 
> Please enjoy! (:

You immediately hide in the darkness, back against the Saloon, heart racing like it never has before. 

“That’s a good boy, Dusty.” He says soothingly at his canine companion. The street light illuminates his face in the most beautiful way. “You might be the only one around here who understands me.” His soothing tone now turning into a solemn one. 

Your heart breaks for Alex in these moments. _What is there to understand? What are you hiding from me, Alex?_

“No one else has seen the kind of stuff you and I have.” he continues, it almost sounds like he is holding back tears now. 

You are unsure about whether or not you should go over and console him. This sounds serious, he shouldn’t be alone right now. You don’t want him to get freaked out, though. You were hiding and listening to his conversation after all, that’s not necessarily _typical_. You decide to sneak around to the front of the Saloon and walk out. If he wants your consolation he’ll ask for it, most likely he’ll probably ignore you like he has been. 

You take a deep breath in and then move your feet towards Alex and Dusty. When you turn the corner this time, Alex is sobbing over the dog pen, Dusty whimpering trying desperately to console him from behind the fence. all of a sudden Alex looks up at you, his solemn expression now morphing into a horrified one.

“Farm girl! did you overhear me talking?” he says frantically, his tear trails glistening from the street lights. 

You have no idea how to respond. You heard everything, but it seems like that would make this situation worse. You contemplate lying to him, but you have too much respect for him in this moment. Looking like a deer in headlights, you muster up the courage to say “Yeas, Alex. I heard everything.” There is a heavy silence that falls upon you both. “I’m sorry, I didn’t--” you are cut off by Alex’s tears again, this time he turns his back to you. Your brain automatically decides to walk over to him and place a gentle hand on his back. You would do anything in this moment to get rid of this pain that he is feeling. You have always been an empath, so when you touched Alex, you began to feel the intensity of his sadness. “Alex, it’s okay to feel this way.” you say to him, now gently rubbing his back with your thumb. 

You let him cry for as long as he needs, and he lets you console him. It is a beautiful moment, sad, but so incredibly beautiful. You dreamed of the day that someone would be this vulnerable with you. All of the people in your life at ZuZu City were robotic. Whenever they felt discomfort or pain they turned to technology. Distraction was the way of life in the city, and you hated that. You were never that kind of person. Now, you have Alex in front of you; completely unraveling. As crazy as it sounds, you were determined to cherish this moment. You listened to his muffled sobs and encouraged him to let out his emotions. Eventually Alex turned his back to the fence and allowed his body to drop to the dirt behind him, and you mimicked his motions.

You both sat in silence as he calmed himself don. Eventually his tears stopped and he threw his head back against the pen and let out a sigh. Looking up into the stars he says, “I don’t really like to talk about my emotions.” Gaze still steadfast into the cosmos, “But you deserve an explanation for all of this.”

You felt an electric sensation in your chest. _Is he really going to open up to me right now?_ For some reason you feel anxious from anticipation. Your heart begins to race and a shiver escapes your body. You want to pull the words out of his mouth, but you know that you shouldn’t. He probably has never opened up to anyone like this before. He is fragile right now and you need to be supportive of the pace that he sets. _Fragile yet so incredibly strong_. You stare up at the sky with him, and look deep into the void that surrounds the stars. Finally, Alex breaks the silence, and you are more than ready to validate and listen to his thoughts.

“Have you ever wondered why I lived with my grandparents?” he asks you. You weren’t expecting a question, but you are going to be completely honest with him in these moments; h _e_ deserves that right now. 

“Honestly Alex, I haven’t given it much thought.” you say to him, your words laced with sincerity.

“Well,” he starts, “my father.... uh.... he wasn’t necessarily a great guy. He ruined a lot of things for me and my mother.” His words were now tainted with mild anger. “Half of the time he was gone..... and the other half of the time he would drink and tell me that I was worthless.” The anger dissipated and the sadness once again returned. “He said that I would never amount to anything.”

Alex now gazed down at his hands, fiddling with grass blades that were in-between his legs. You didn’t know what to say at that moment, you knew he wasn’t finished and you wanted to _listen_ to him before you made an attempt to console him. Anger filled your heart, his father was a piece of shit--just like yours. You understood his pain and sorrow more than he could ever know in the moment. But this was his time to open up to you, not yours. You sit in silence with him until he is able to continue his story. 

Alex left out a chuckle, “You know, I almost think he resented me for being young.” He said, returning his gaze to the cosmos once more. “He was bitter because I had my whole life ahead of me and he wasted his youth and never amounted to anything.” 

_Right you are, Alex_. You knew what that was like, your mother had you as a teenager and you always felt she resented your youth. You were completely in awe at how emotionally intelligent Alex was, it was extremely attractive. You had to push those thoughts from your mind, you felt your cheeks flush, but thankfully Alex’s gaze was elsewhere. 

“One day he just... left. Not too long after that my mother got extremely ill and passed away.” Once again trying to stifle the tears that were forming in his eyes. “That’s when I moved in with my grandparents.”

Now turning to look at you, Alex confesses “I’ve never told anyone that, for some reason I trust you completely.” turning to look at Dusty, Alex continues “I don’t want your sympathy though. If there is anything that my past has taught me it’s that I am strong. It turned me into the person that I am now.” 

You nod almost impulsively. You have never felt more strength radiate from someone. Alex was an absolute power house in this moment. His gaze turns to you, waiting for a response. It almost looks like he is wincing, bracing himself for what you have to say next. It is then that you decide to sympathize with him.

“You know Alex, when I was younger, I also lived with my grandparents.” you say to him, his face now extremely curious. “ My mother was a teenage pregnancy and my father was a total waste of space. He didn’t want to take responsibility for us, so he moved as soon as they were done with high school. He was young, yes, but he never tried to reach out to me. He never physically told me I was worthless, but his absence made me feel that way.” Now you adjust your gaze to the sky, “My mother resented me too. I was young and extremely intelligent, the world rested in my hands. I understand pain that you are in, not completely, but my own version of it.” 

“.... I had no idea.” Alex replies, completely in shock. 

“Of course you didn’t!” you let a small laugh leave you throat, “How could you?” you say to him, but the question was also secretly directed to the void. “You know, I feel so incredibly honored to know you right now, Alex. There is so much strength in your vulnerability....” You shake your head and let out an airy laugh, you turn your gaze to meet his. “I didn’t think it was possible, but you are a lot stronger than I have ever imagined.”

A smile appears on Alex’s face as you both laugh with one another. The moment is genuine. It’s sincere. And it’s wonderful. 

“Hey...” Alex says, trying to catch his breath, “do you want to meet Dusty?”

The question catches you off guard, but you are more than happy to meet his companion. Nodding, Alex leads you around the front of the pen and opens the gate. Dusty runs over to you and growls, but you kneel down and put your hand out for him to sniff it. After a couple of investigative sniffs, Dusty jumps into your arms and licks your face. You can’t help but let out a hearty laugh. 

“Ahh! Dusty no!” Alex shouts.

Laughing uncontrollably, you manage “Alex it’s okay! I love dogs”

“You know, Dusty usually doesn’t like other people. I can’t believe that he has taken to you like this.” he says, almost shocked, but totally honest.

You don’t say anything, instead you drink in the moment. When you first encountered Alex, you were slightly intoxicated from the Pale Ale that you had consumed. Now you were completely drunk off of this experience. You spend a great deal of the night playing with Dusty. You and Alex don’t speak during this time, but that doesn’t stop you from looking over at him. Every time your gaze meets his, he is there to greet you with a huge smile. He stands in the corner of the pen completely fixated on the moment as well. 

Eventually, Dusty grows tired and retreats back to his doghouse to lay down. You turn to look up at Alex, “Well, I guess I should go home and do the same.” The words taste like vinegar coming out of your mouth. You didn’t want to leave, and you didn’t want this moment to end. 

Alex pushes himself off of the fence and walks over to you. He extends a hand down to you on the ground to help you up. You gladly reach back, and the moment your skin reaches his you shudder. You desperately wish that you were able to embrace him. You wish he was yours. You get up on your feet and you and Alex are inches away from each other. You look up at him and meet his gaze. You both stay in that moment, and you are completely lost in his eyes. 

“Well I guess it’s time to go.” You say to him, trying to will him to implore you to stay.

“I guess so.” He replies to you in a growl. 

You both break whatever spell you were both under and you brush the dirt off of your pants. Alex walks over to the gate and you both exit. You walk him over to his house, when you arrive you both turn to one another again. 

“Thank you.... for tonight. I needed it.” He says to you and you nod in return. Then he turns and disappears into the pretty blue house. 

You head back to your farm house thinking about the intensity of your feelings towards him. _I’m going to need a lot of sugar scrub to wash these away_ , you smile to yourself. 


	12. Soap for Dessert

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Guys, I have had a lot of creative energy today. 
> 
> I went to the gym and all I could think about were ideas for this fic. 
> 
> SO..... here is another chapter! 
> 
> I hope you enjoy this one! It was extremely fun to write :3

You wake up from your sleep the day after your adventures with Maru and Alex. You turn over in bed and smile into your pillow. You are happy to realize that last night wasn’t a dream. _I should thank Maru._ You decide to get up, get dressed and water your crops. You finish everything in a hurry, because you have intentions on bringing Maru and Harvey two cups of farm fresh coffee on their lunch break this afternoon. 

Once you are finished watering your crops, you take the time to grab a quick shower, and then you immediately head over to your coffee machine. You place ten coffee beans in the pot and wait for the brew to be finished. You head over to the TV in the mean time and turn on the weather channel. The next couple of days look beautiful. Part of you is happy, but the other part of you is also upset. You wish that it would rain so that you could sleep in one day. “Chance of rain on Friday” the weatherman says. You look at the TV almost spooked, it’s like it heard your thoughts.

The coffee pot still hasn’t beeped, so you decide to turn on the local fortune telling channel, “ Yes, I see that a young woman from Stardew Valley has just tuned in. The Spirits are in good humor today! They will throw some luck your way!” the woman exclaims. This time you only roll your eyes. You have always been a skeptic of psychics, weathermen on the other hand, were apparently a different story. 

*Beep* *Beep* *Beep* *Beep*

You quick turn off the TV and throw the remote control, hoping to hit your chair, but instead it clangs to the floor. You wince a little from the noise as it makes hard contact with the hardwood floor.

You grab two travel mugs out of your cupboard and poor coffee in each of them. You dress them both the same, with vanilla soy milk, grab your jacket, and head out of the door in a flash.

You make your way up to the clinic and are surprised to see George and Evelyn leaving. They are both bickering as Evelyn holds the door for George. George glances up and sees you, and to your surprise gives you a faint smile, “Hey there. Long time no see.”

You and Evelyn look at each other, completely shocked. Did George just initiate interaction with you? Evelyn smiles at you after she shakes off her confusion, “Lovely running into you dear!” she says so sweetly.

You smile at both of them, “It’s so nice to see you both. I feel like I haven’t seen you in forever.” 

Evelyn nods in agreement, “You should stop by for dinner today, I am making some crab cakes. Wemiss having you visit us!” 

You shake your head in agreement, “I would love to drop by, I’ll see you both then!”

You watch as George and Evelyn disappear from your view. You head into the clinic just in time for your friend’s lunch break.

“Ah! Harvey! Look who came to visit us!” Maru yelled back into his office, now running to meet you in the waiting room. 

“How are you feeling today? Hung over at all?” she says laughing.

“No, actually! Not at all. I actually ran into Alex on my way home last night, so I had some time to burn off the alcohol.” you say, not realizing the severity of what you had just admitted.

Harvey goes to greet you from behind the counter, but Maru quickly cuts him off, “She met up with Alex last night after we parted!” Harvey now had a smirk on his face to match Maru’s. You felt your face ignite with blush. 

“Guys, stop it’s not a big deal! Nothing happened!” you say to them both, pleading that they stop harassing you with their body language. 

“Let’s head up to my apartment. You can indulge us!” Harvey says to you in a mild mannered way. “Oh, and is that coffee you have in your hand for us?” he asks, now obviously flustered. 

“You are dating an addict.” you turn and say to Maru. You hand her one mug and then walk over to Harvey to give him the other. All three of you head upstairs to Harvey’s apartment.

His apartment isn’t what you would expect. There are TONS of model airplanes in his apartment and a radio surrounded by world maps. Everything is neatly disorganized. You look over at his kitchen and it is incredibly pristine, probably because he never cooks for himself. The only dirtied area seems to be the one that surrounds the microwave. You make your way over to the sitting area and plop down on the couch next to Maru, who already has her shoes off rubbing her feet. Harvey sits down in the chair adjacent to you both. 

“I can’t believe we still have 3 hours of work left.” Maru says exhausted. “The worst part about being a nurse is standing on your feet the entire time. Otherwise it is totally fulfilling.” 

Harvey lets out a sigh, “Yeah, it had been a busy day for us!”

After both of them take some sips out of their coffee, Maru looks at you and asks, “So! Tell me about what happened last night after we left the Saloon!”

You take a deep breath in and exhale sharply, “I told you. Nothing really happened. I saw Alex out by his dog and we just started to.... talk about life in general.” you say, shrugging your shoulders. “Then he introduced me to his dog, Dusty, and we parted shortly after.”

“Wow,” Harvey interjects, “He invited you to to meet his dog?” sipping his coffee, peering over the rim at you. 

“Yeah, so?” You genuinely don’t understand what point Harv is trying to make. 

“He has never let anyone near that dog, not even Haley.” He replies to you. “Dusty is not exactly friendly.”

“That’s ridiculous,” you say, “I’m sure Haley has met Dusty before.” 

“She hasn’t,” he reassures you. “Trust me, as town doctor I know. When Haley comes into my office she treats her visit as almost a counseling session. She always complains about that dog and how Alex is so obsessed with it.” 

You look over at Maru who briefly glances at you and then looks forward as she sips your travel mug with a smirk on her face. You are shocked at the words that Harvey says to you, but you trust him completely; he is one of your good friends. You sit there in silence, unsure of what to say next. Thankfully Maru interjects. 

“You should ask him to dance at the Flower Dance.” she say in a flat manner. She has a look on her face that you assume she only gets when she is working on one of her mad science projects. 

“Excuse me, but what?” you say, genuinely unsure about what the ‘Flower Dance’ was.

Harvey begins to explain, “It is a dance that will happen in a couple days. All of the bachelors and bachelorettes in town partner up and do a big dance at the end of it.”

Maru speaks up, “Alex always dances with Haley, and she is always crowned Flower Queen. But it sounds like he may be interested in dancing with you this year.” she finishes as a smile creeps onto her face. 

“Guys, that sounds ridiculous. No.” you say back sharply.

They both look at you and shrug, “Suit yourself. But if you feel like gambling that day, go for it. I say odds are in your favor.” Maru says while Harvey nods at you. 

You are all interrupted by the clinic bell, “Oh well, I guess we have a patient Maru.” Harvey says, exhausted. “Time for us to get back to work” Maru assures him, begrudgingly.

You head down the stairs and see Vincent and Jodi in the waiting room. Vincent is crying over a scrape that he has on his knee. He apparently tried to do a trick on his brother, Sam’s skateboard. 

“Thank for the coffee!” Harvey shouts at you as you make your way to the door. “I’ll call you later!” Maru yells in your direction. You turn around and wave at them, and then head out of the clinic.

You head back to your farm and place some cobblestone walkways and a couple of stone fences. Things are really starting to shape up for you on the farm. Before when you looked out, all you would see is wilderness. Now you see a semi-developed plot of land with some chickens roaming around it.

You head back inside and get ready for dinner. You can’t help but wonder if Alex will be there. Either way, you are happy to entertain his grandparents for the evening. You have come to love both of them very much, and it has been a while since you enjoyed their company. 

On your way to Evelyn’s home, you contemplate the Flower Dance. Anxiety builds within you as you think about asking Alex to dance. There is no way that you would be so forward. If he asked you.... well.... that would be a different story. But you shake your head and accept the reality that he is with Haley. If that is what makes him happy, then so be it. 

You arrive at Evelyn’s and you let yourself in. You open the door and are immediately hit with the smell of crab cakes. _Mmmmmm._ You are lucky to have gotten so close to Evelyn, her cooking is fantastic. 

“Hey Evelyn! If it’s okay with you, I let myself in!” you call out to the kitchen.

“Absolutely dear! You are always welcome here.” She states.

You round the corner and see George sitting at the table to your surprise, he looks up at you and smiles. No matter how many times he smiles at you, you find yourself incredibly shocked. You don’t see Alex anywhere, so you are slightly disappointed. 

“Dear, would you go get Alex from his room?” Evelyn asks, clearing all disappointment you had a second ago.

You nod your head and head down the hallway to his room. You knock before entering, and you hear Alex say, “Come in.”

You open the door, and Alex is standing in front of you, shirtless and gleaming with sweat. You look away as you enter the room, as if you have seen something you shouldn’t have. I _t’s not like I haven’t seen him shirtless before. Smooth._

Alex noticed your discomfort, but he seemed to be relishing in it. He walks over to you, and with a smirk he reaches behind you. You let out a muffled gasp and look up at him with wide eyes. 

“I need my towel.” he says as he pulls the piece of fabric off the door behind you. 

“Oh I’m sorry!” You say moving out of the way. “Uh supper is done, when you get the chance.” You stutter, sounding like an absolute fool. 

You turn around, head down,and walk towards the kitchen; trying not to be bright red as you enter the room. When you approach the table, George and Evelyn are singing along to the radio that is set to an oldie station. You take a minute to cherish that moment. Suddenly you feel a large hand placed in between your shoulder blades; a quiver leaves your body. You look over your shoulder and see Alex standing there, also admiring the moment. “They are great, aren’t they?” he asks you.

You look back at them, “They really are” you saying, hearing the smile form on your lips. 

“Come on,” Alex steps in front of you and motions in their direction with his head. “Let’s join their party.”

Speechless. Breathless. Totally swept away. You can’t get enough of Alex in these moments. The rest of the evening you spent laughing with Alex and his grandparents. After dinner was over, Evelyn served some of her favorite, chocolate cake, and then you all proceeded to play a couple hands of the card game Rummy. 

Unfortunately, the night came to an end. Evelyn and George headed to bed, and you cleaned up the kitchen like you offered to do; Alex stayed behind and helped. 

“Thank you,” Alex started, as he washed the dishes, “thank you for being so great to them.”

You smile down at your hands wiping off a petite dessert plate, “It is incredibly easy to love them, Alex.”

Alex looked at you from the side and smiled, “Yes they are.” he said in agreement. 

You continue to do the dishes with Alex when he suddenly says, “Hey, you have a little something on your nose.”

You reach up to your face, wiping the area with your fingers, you looked at him to see if you got whatever it was that was on your face. Alex shook his head, “No, here, let me help.” And just like that you were whacked in the face with suds.

You let out a laugh and reach into the sink for some suds as well, “Weird, now you have something on your face.” you say, wiping soap bubbles on Alex’s cheek. 

It didn’t take long for things to get out of hand. You and Alex frantically dip your hands in the bubbles, grabbing as much as you can. He lands some in your hair, and you give him a beard. You are both laughing so hard that you failed to realize that the floor had gotten slippery. You take a step forward and your foot slides out from underneath you, throwing your body into Alex’s while letting out a yelp. 

Alex catches you and you both stop and stare at each other. He holds you while you regain your balance, one of his hands had actually ended up under your shirt and was now resting on the small of your back. Your left arm grabs his forearm by his elbow, pushing yourself in an upright position. The hand that was on your bare back slid out from underneath your shirt, and your right arm grabs his other arm like your left. 

With both feet planted firmly on the ground, you look up at Alex. Both of your arms are still locked in with each other. He is now staring down at you with the most serious expression you have seen on him all night. “I’m sorry” you manage to squeak you as you pull away from him. Alex let’s out a small chuckle, looking away from you and says, “It’s okay, we kind of got out of hand.”

Both you and Alex return to your dishes and finish up cleaning. Silence falls over both of you the entire time. You hate when this happens, you wish he would just tell you what he was thinking. 

“Well that seems to be everything here.” He says to you, “You can head out now if you’d like.” 

Of course you wouldn’t like that, but it felt wrong to stay after what just happened. After all, he had Haley. So you muster up a yawn and look at the clock and say, “I have a long day tomorrow. So I probably should head out.” 

You reach for your knapsack and gather your belongings. Alex walks you to the door and says to you softly, “I had a great time tonight..... we had a great time tonight.”

“Me too, Alex.” you say back at him, avoiding his gaze. “I’ll see you around!” you smile and look up at him. He smiles warmly in your direction and you stepout into the cool spring air. You turn around once more and smile, and he is there to return the affection. 

\--------------

Little did you know, Alex watched you until you disappeared into the darkness. He couldn’t take his eyes off of you. 


	13. Dress Shopping

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alright! this is my last chapter of the day! 
> 
> I was able to get a little more creative with this one! 
> 
> Enjoy! ^-^

When you got home last night, you called Maru to tell her about your evening. Her excitement almost exceeded yours. You had agreed to go dress shopping with her for the Flower Dance. Now that it is the morning, and you are six hours away from the event, you totally regret agreeing to plans while you were in a giddy mood.

You immediately hop out of bed and get working, incredibly drowsy from your night of daydreaming about Alex. You water all of your crops, feed the chickens, and gather eggs. By the time you finish with these mundane tasks that usually takes you only two hours, four and a half hours have passed. 

You lazily make your way to your shower and proceed to get ready for your day with Maru. You do your hair and your makeup, you always seem to feel better about tying on clothes when you are neatly groomed. You head out of your farmhouse and Maru is already on her way to you. She greets you with a smile and you both walk to the bus stop together.

While you are waiting for the bus, Maru turns to you and says, “I don’t mean to be harsh, but you look dreadful.”

You look over at her and her eyes are drowning with concern, “Yeah, I didn’t get much sleep last night after I came home from dinner.” you say to her while rubbing the area around your eyes.

Maru shakes her head in agreement, you can totally tell that she understands where you are coming from. 

You chat back and forth about the weather and Harvey. You also discuss the recent political situation at your area is currently struggling to resolve. You definitely enjoy having Maru as your friend. She is extremely intelligent, and shares your love of deep conversation. 

The bus pulls up and you both grab a seat towards the middle. She lets you have the middle seat, and and soon as you sit down and lean your head on the window, you fall asleep for the ride there.The next thing you remember is Maru shaking you awake, “Hey! Look! We are here!” she says extremely excited. “ Wow, you look better too. That nap did you well!” She isn’t wrong, you feel one hundred times better. The trip to the city is about an hour and fifteen minutes, and you needed all of it to regenerate. 

Maru has never been to the city before, so she is like a deer in headlights when she steps off of the bus. She has no idea which direction to look; she looks very touristy. _She’s adorable._ You start walking down the street and stop by a coffee shop to grab a little extra pick me up. And then make your was too the quint little shop on the corner of a bustling street. The gowns in the front of the building are radiant, but far too dressy for the Flower Dance, or at least you hope so.

You and Maru walk into the shop and are greeted by a petite blonde woman dressed in all black, “Hello there, Welcome to the Dress Chateau! My name is Meredith and I will be helping you out today.” She says sweetly. You know that the kindness is probably fake because she works off of commissions; your kindness would be fake too. 

“Hi! We are looking for a dress for Pelican Town’s Flower Dance,” Maru starts, “uhhh, I’m sorry. I realize you probably have no idea what that is.”

Meredith lets out a chuckle, “Actually, my coworker is helping someone else right now who needs a dress for the same thing! Here let me set you up with some options.

Meredith leads you to the fitting room area, her long blonde hair bouncing with every step. A large chandelier hangs in the middle of the room, underneath it there several large, circular seats to sit on. You and Maru sit down on one of them, and Meredith pours two glasses of strawberry champagne. Maru looks at you like she has just seen a ghost, totally shocked by the scene unfolding in front of her eyes. 

“I feel.... incredibly out of place.” Maru says as she laughs in your direction. 

“Me too.” you say, in complete agreement. There was a time in your life where you would have been in this dress shop once a month. Now, you don’t fancy the environment so much.

You hear a giggle from one of the stalls. Two friends are trying on dresses and talking about their love life. “What do you think of this one?” one of the girl asks. “OH. MY. GOSH. YES.” The other one exclaims, being way too dramatic for your liking. “He isn’t going to be able to take his hands off of you!” the second girl finishes. “Oh I know. He always fucks me so hard after the dance is finished.”

Suddenly, you are painfully aware of who exactly is in that fitting room. Haley. Just as you realize, Maru realizes too. “You know what, fuck this.” Maru says. “I’m sure there is another dress shop in this disgusting city. Let’s go.” she says as she takes the champagne glass out of your hand, slamming them both on the counter. _Did Maru seriously say ‘fuck’?_ She grabs your hand and you both run out of the shop. 

You laugh at what transpired, and Maru looks at you totally confused, “I don’t understand. What’s so funny?” she asks.

“You said ‘fuck’!” you say, unable to hold back your laughter. You both look like total fools, laughing incredibly hard on the corner of some city street. Once you compose yourselves, you walk around searching for a new dress shop. 

Eventually, you come across a tiny shop called Brianna’s Closet. You both look at each other and head in. The interior of the shop was much more your speed. No chandeliers. No champagne. No blonde women. 

The woman behind the counter looked up at you both, “Let me know if you need anything!” _Thank God._

You and Maru try on several dresses, both coming out of the dressing room and twirling with each other in front of the mirror. Maru finds a beautiful white dress that has pink tulips on it. You, however, still have yet to pick out a dress.

“Well, Maru, this is the last one.” You say before entering the dressing room. Maru looks at you with her fingers crossed.

The dress in front of you is knee length and silver. It has a scooped neck and thin spaghetti straps. You slip it on and come out of the dressing room with your eyes closed, “Well, what do you think?” you say, bracing yourself for Maru’s brutal honesty.

Maru doesn’t respond so you open your eyes. There she is in front of you with her mouth gaped open. “You have to wear this dress tomorrow, it is the epitome of sophistication on you.”

You turn to look in the mirror. The dress fits you like a glove, hugging all of your curves and caressing your body underneath. “If you say you.” you say to her with a smile.

“Wait right here!” Maru says as she frantically leaves the room. Whenshe returns, she comes bearing blue pumps with ankle straps. “These would go great with that dress. Totally different.” 

You slip them on, and you are surprised but how wonderful the entire ensemble looks. “You certainly have an eye for fashion!” you say to Maru.

You quick change out of the dress and make your way to the counter. You decide to pay for Maru’s dress too. Things have been going really well for you on the farm. Maru is horrified by your kindness, but it’s the least you can do for her; she is a great friend. 

On your walk back to the bus, you and Maru stop for some ice cream. This time Maru is insistent on paying for your ice cream. You happily let her by you your regular teaberry in a dish. 

Sitting down on the pink seats of the ice cream shop, you can’t help but let your mind wander back to the Dress Chateau and Haley. It must be apparent on your face because maru looks over her ice cream cone and says, “Don’t think about it. Haley can.... dare I say..... go FUCK herself.” she says, and you both burst out into laughter. 


	14. Flower Dance

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I had a lot of difficulty writing this chapter for some reason. Maybe it's because I know next to nothing about dancing and dance? Lol 
> 
> I hope you all enjoy it anyway! It was still incredibly fun to write ^-^

When you came back from the city last night, Maru thought it would be best if she stayed at your place. You definitely agreed with her and it was just the company you needed before the impending doom of the flower dance. 

When you woke up, Maru’s foot was in your face, and her mouth was wide open with a string of drool falling down her cheek. You giggle under your breath, not to wake her, and make your way to your kitchen. 

You start breakfast, grabbing some fresh eggs from your chickens out of the fridge. Eventually you hear footsteps heading towards you. You turn around to see a disheveled Maru. 

You laugh out loud, “Well, if it isn’t sleeping beauty herself.” You say, barely maintaining your composure. 

“Oh shut up.” she says to you, pushing her hair out of her eyes. “What’s for breakfast?”

“Omelets!” you say excited, you haven’t cooked for anyone in a long time. Everyone back in the city adored your cooking. 

You place an omelet down in front of Maru and she stuffs her face like a feral animal. You stare at her completely amazed. You are loving all of these sides ofhers. 

“That. Was. The. Greatest. Omelet. Ever.” She gasped, practically licking the plate. 

“Did you want more?” you ask, still laughing.

“No, I better not. I need to fit into that awful dress today.” She said rolling her eyes.

You Both have been dreading this day. You because of Alex, and Maru because she hates dressing up and having people watch her; _can you blame her?_

“ I guess we should get ready” she says as she makes her way to your bathroom. “I’ll shower first! I promise I’ll be quick!”

Within five minutes Maru is done and making her way into your bathroom, “All yours!”

_She wasn’t lying_. You brush your teeth and hop in the shower, making sure to put some extra conditioner on your hair. _Might as well go all out today_. 

You head out of your bedroom and you see Maru already dressed watching the weather channel. _How does she do that?_

You head into your bedroom and close the door. You put on a pair of white lace underwear and decide that you are going to go braless in your dress. You head over to your mirror and dry your hair, eventually adding some loose waves with your straightener. You tuck a piece of your hair back behind your ear with a bobby pin, and decide to put another one on top of it forming an ‘X.’ You step over to your dress and carefully zip up the back, and step into the blue pumps that Maru had picked out for you. 

You spray some perfume on your wrists and the back of your neck and then proceed to do your makeup. You don’t need foundation these days, your skin is beautifully tanned from all of the time you spend outside. New freckles pop up on your nose and cheeks daily. You putt on some mascara and a light dab of cheek stain. Pulling back you look at your face in the mirror, the only thing missing now is some clear lip gloss. 

You step out of your room and Maru turns to look at you, “Wow. Alex would be an idiot if he didn’t notice you.”

You blush, you aren’t used to being ogled. “Thank you Maru, but I am looking to have some fun today. Dare I say.... FUCK Alex!” You both look at each other and laugh.

Once you both calm down, Maru suggests that you make your way to the dance. It is already 9:20am, so you will be fashionably late. 

\--------------

On your walk to the dance, Maru keeps you distracted by discussing a new gadget that she is working on. Something that apparently will help nonrenewable resources become.... renewable. You aren’t sure. You are intelligent, but Maru is a genius. 

Arriving at the Flower Dance, it looks as if everyone from town is already present. Emily is standing at the entrance and draws an incredible amount of attention to you.

“WOW! You look INCREDIBLE!”

You know your face is bright red, you can feel a fire burning from within your cheeks, “Thank you! You are incredibly sweet.” Frantically trying to regain your composure. 

Harvey now joins you all and immediately grabs Maru and plants a passionate kiss on her lips, “You are so incredibly lovely.” He says as he stares deep into her eyes. You feel a twinge of envy for what they have.

Now Harvey, looking over at you, says “You clean up well too! You look great!”

Maru interjects, “Doesn’t she?! Total dreamboat.” 

Emily heads to the field to dance on her own, you admire her authenticity. Emily is true to herself and doesn’t care much about what other people think. Harvey and Maru follow, barely able to keep their hands off of each other.

You quickly decide to sit on a bench that is outlining the lake and people watch. _Maybe I can just turn invisible and make it through today without anymore attention_. Just as the thought crosses your head, Sam and Sebastian make their way over to you. 

“We couldn’t help but notice how beautiful you look” they both say, completely struck by your appearance. 

“Really, you look brilliant.” Sebastian reiterates, totally sincere too. Usually when he speaks to you it’s short and cold, so you are totally taken off guard by their compliments. 

Flustered, you manage, “you are too kind. Thank you, really.” flashing them a smile. 

Sam and Sebastian stay and talk to you for a bit. You enjoy their company, and their taste in music. You totally hit it off talking about different rock bands that you all enjoy, your interests overlapping frequently. You look up from your conversation and you see Alex, standing at the farthest end of the venue. His arms are folded and he is leaning against a fence, he doesn’t seem to be enjoying himself. Haley is dancing in front of him supposedly practicing her dance moves.

For a moment, you feel slightly jealous, but then you decide to brush it off. _Fuck Alex_. You turn to Sam and Sebastian and say, “It’s going to be summer soon! Would you guys like to head to the beach one day?

Sebastian let’s out a groan, and before anyone can respond you add, “Seb! You can bring Abigail if you’d like!”

That seems to perk him up. They both agree to your suggestion, and your plans are set into motion. You’ll enjoy spending time with some new people. 

Just as you all are putting the final details on your summer plans, Mayor Lewis announces that it is time for all the couples to line up for the ceremonial dance. 

Sam looks over at you, “Hey, I know this is short notice, but would you want to be my partner? Penny is sick this year, and it would help me out a lot! What do you say, friend?”

You can’t help but look over at Alex in this moment, however, he is already lined up Haley and you know that nothing you can do in this moment will change that. You look at Sam and nod your head with a smile, “sure thing, Sam!”

You and Sam walk over to the line of couples, arm in arm. You are the last two to join the line, and when you get there you can’t help but feel a glare coming from Alex’s direction. You look over at him and he is staring at you in the most possessive way. The way he is looking at you is kind of a turn on. You wave at him and he returns the favor, remaining content keeping a stoic expression. 

You manage to take a quick glance over at Maru and Harvey, for once in your life in Pelican town, you see them completely confused. _They probably have no idea how I ended up with Sam._ You can’t help but to laugh and shrug at them. 

When the music starts you and Sam have a difficult time developing a rhythm. You are completely in unison regarding your clumsiness. Sam is an attractive man. His blonde hair is thick and lustrous, and he has brown eyes that look like pools of honey today. _But he’s not Alex_. You shake off your thought and focus on Sam, putting your all into this _weird_ tradition. Before you know it, the music has stopped and mayor Lewis announces that everyone should gather around for grand reveal of the Flower King and Queen. 

You already know that Haley and Alex are going to be crowned with the honor, so you make your way over to the punch bowl to quench your thirst.

“Flower King is........ Alex!” Mayor Lewis shouts from the distance. Everyone claps and you aren’t surprised. _Good for him_. 

“And Flower Queen is........” you just reach the punch table when Mayor Lewis announces your name. There is a wave of shocked expressions on everyone when you turn around. You glance over at Haley and she looks as if she is about to run over and rip your throat out. You turn your attention to Alex standing by Mayor Lewis and, to your surprise, you see a smile on his face.

“Well are you going to just stand there?!” Maru shouts at you, trying to encourage you to move-- or do something. 

You walk over to Mayor Lewis and he places the flower crown on your head and announces, “Here are this year’s King and Queen! Everyone clear some room so they can share the final dance of the evening.” You really wish your invisible dream had come true, everyone is looking at you; they all seem thrilled, except for Haley.

Alex turns to you, clearing the distance between your bodies, a smirk resting softly on his face. He reaches a hand out to you and bows a bit, never taking his eyes off of yours, “Want to dance?” 

You reach for hand and the contact electrifies you to your core, his large body towering over yours in the most dominating way. Everyone is gathered around in a circle, and Alex led you to the center as if you were in a dream. 

Alex turns you to face him, and slowly slides his hand down your back and pulls you into his strong frame; firmly holding your hand in his free one. You reach up to his broad shoulder and tenderly lay your hand down upon it.

You whisper to Alex before the music starts, “Everyone is staring at us.”

Alex let out a soft chuckle, his breath grazing your cheek, “I didn’t even notice.” 

It was in that moment that you decided to let yourself go. All of your worries and your jealousy completely melt away from your body. Nothing else mattered in this moment except you and Alex. Your feet began to move to the music, and there wasn’t a moment where you felt out of sync with him. You allowed him to take you anywhere he wanted. If he went left, you went left. If he slowed down, you followed. You adapted to him-- with him. There was a heat between you that was blazing like an inferno. Each step you took it grew more ferocious, mimicking your heart beat. You didn’t want the moment to end.You wanted to stay wrapped in Alex’s essence for the rest of your life.

Unfortunately, the song had come to an end and you and Alex slowed down to a stop. Everyone around you is cheering and clapping, and it’s creating a thunderous roar in your head. You and Alex should disconnect your bodies from one another, but neither of you make the move to do so. Instead you both stand there smiling, completely drinking in one another. “You look beautiful today farm girl.” Alex whispers in your ear. _Am I falling for this man that I barely know_?

“The song is over,” Haley shouts at Alex, stomping over to grab his arm. _Oh yeah, he has a girlfriend too..... shit._ “It’s time to go.” 

A great look of sadness takes over his once euphoric face and you are both forced apart by the tiny blonde; coldness rushing in to replace the warmth. Alex looks over his shoulder at you with a gaze that says “I’m sorry” without him actually saying it. You give him a reassuring look, you don’t blame him.

“That was...... intense.” Maru places a hand on your shoulder and whispers in your ear.

You look at her, coming down from the high you were on thirty seconds ago, “Well it’s over now. So it doesn’t matter.” 

You turn to face Maru and Harvey, they are both looking at you with a solemn expression. You know that look, it’s pity. A wave of nausea hits you from the emotional roller coaster you were just riding. All you want to do is head home and curl up on the couch with your favorite blanket. 

“I’m going to head home guys.” You say in their direction. “Thank you for everything Maru, I’ll call you tomorrow.” 


	15. Changing Seasons

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I had a long drive to go kayaking today! So I decided to write another chapter! 
> 
> Weather is absolutely beautiful where I am so I am going to make the best of my day! 
> 
> Have a wonderful day and please enjoy! :3

You were barely able to sleep the night after the Flower Dance. You had so many emotions running through your head, all relating back to Alex. They way he looked at you was almost magical. As a little girl, it was the way you had always longed to be looked at. Your interaction with Alex made you hot, and nothing you were able to do with evening distracted you from your urges. 

You headed into the shower and stripped off your clothing. Gently brushing your hands against your breasts. Your hands roam your fragile body, leaving a trail of goosebumps wherever they moved. Every inch they covered, you were slammed with the memory of Alex’s hands on your lower back. 

You step into the steaming shower and grab your tea tree oil shampoo, pumping a glob of it into the palm of your hands. Massaging it into your scalp leaves you with a cool, tingling sensation contrasts the hot water pouring over your naked body. You smile to yourself thinking about Alex on top of you, breathing in the scent of your shampoo. 

You begin to feel dizzy from lust.Grabbing the shower head, you sit down on the bench that is available in your shower. You stretch out your left leg, placing it on the shower wall, and pull the shower head into your chest. The pressure of the water tantalizing your hard nipples. You run the head down your chest to your core, letting out a gasp as you reach the point between your legs. You savor the moment, it has been so long since you let yourself release in this way. Since moving to Pelican Town, you haven’t had much time to enjoy your own company. 

You move the shower head around, allowing he sensations to totally consume you. You let out a gentle whimper as you are pushed over the edge. Your legs convulse as your arch your head backinto the shower wall, almost slamming it. You don’t realize though because you are totally consumed by pleasure. You sit there for a moment, out of breath yet euphoric, allowing yourself to enjoy the moment. 

A minute passes and a great tide of exhaustion falls over your body. You finish your shower, dry off, and head back into your bed; falling deep into sleep. 

\-------------

You flutter your eyes awake and turn over to look at your clock-- _holy fuck!_

“10:44!” you shout, scrambling to get out of your bed. 

You have no idea how you slept so long. You always wake up with the rooster, but you have a back up alarm just in case that fails. 

You rush over to your dresser and grab the first thing you see. You slip on the clothing and throw on a pair of work boots and fly out of the door. Instead of walking out into the fresh air, you hit something hard and are thrown back to the floor. _Owwww_. 

Looking up incredibly confused you see a large figure standing over you. You place your hand over your eyes to filer out some of the sunlight, and realize that it’s Alex.

“Alex?” you say completely confused. “Is everything okay?”

You can tell that Alex is holding back laughter. “I was just coming over to drop off some cookies that my grandmother made. Rough morning?”

You reach for the chair the is right by your door and pull yourself up into it, you are still dazed from your recent impact. “That’s so nice! her cookies are the best.” you say to him as he walks in your home and places the cookies on your kitchen table.

“Hey, Alex, I don’t mean to be rude or anything.... but I just woke up. I have to get outside to water my plants and feed the chickens...” _Oh my gosh the chickens, they are probably rioting in their coop right now_. 

You jump out of the chair and gather your things once more, trying to look as graceful as possible. “Do you want any help?” he asks you, eyebrow raised.

His offer stops you in your tracks. “If you don’t mind,” you start, walking over to the drawer where you keep your bank envelopes. You pull out a long, blue envelope with a black zipper. You open it to see how much you can pay him for his services, looking up you ask “is 1,000 gold good for the day?”

Alex looks at you like you suddenly grew another head. He makes his way over to you and grabs the envelope out of your hands, zips it back up, and throws it in the drawer. “How about dinner tonight? My grandmother is making stew.”

You are totally taken by surprise. _What about Haley_? “Alex, I don’t know.” you say to him hesitantly, your heart urging you to just give in. 

“That’s fine, I guess I’ll just have to break her heart and tell her you weren’t interested.” He says, looking at you out of the corner of his eye with a coy smirk. 

“”Wow, well, when you put it that way I guess I don’t really have a choice in the matter!” you say back at him with a chuckle. 

“Great.” He says to you in that soft, husky tone that drives you wild. He places his hand on the counter and is looking down at you. _Why does he always do this_? 

“Should we head out?” You ask him, trying desperately to get back on track.

Alex nods at you and you both head out of your farmhouse, this time in less of a rush. You water the crops while Alex tends to the chickens. You watch as he enters the coop, and you immediately hear a struggle. You laugh to yourself, those chickens can be vicious when they are hungry. 

You make your way around the crops and Alex meets you at your kale patch, chicken feathers sticking out of his hair. 

“ You never told me they are demons.” Alex says to you. You hysterically laugh as you walk over to him and remove the feathers from his hair. 

“Put out your hands.” You command him in between your laughter. You gently place the feather in his hand as you pull them out. Your hands reach into his thick brown hair, your fingers urging you to get lost in his locks. 

“A souvenir!” You say to him in an exaggerated tone, losing yourself to your laughter once more. 

“Oh, you think your funny?” Alex says to you totally serious, but also enriched with play.

Before you know it, Alex has picked you up. Your torso falls down his back while your legs are pressed firmly against his chest with his arm; you are completely bent in half. 

“Alex!” You say with another laugh, “Stop, put me down! What are you doing?” 

You don’t get a reply, instead you are thrown into the pond that is on the outer edge of your property. You are completely submerged in the water, and when you resurface again, Alex is standing on the bank, hand on his stomach, letting out a roar of a laugh; a laugh that is coming from deep within his belly. 

_That son of a bitch_. “The least you can do is help me up, you ass.” you say, completely serious,extending your hand up to have him help you up. He notices that you are upset, and he reaches down for your hand, “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t--” As soon as he is hooked, you pull him into the water with you. 

You hurry to make your way out of the water and make a break for your house, looking back to yell, “You’re so gullible!” A mischievous smirk appears on Alex’s face and you know you are in deep shit. _Shit._

You run as fast as you can to the farmhouse, you reach for the door knob, and just as you are about to pull the door open two large hands slam it shut. You turn around and there is barely any room between you and Alex, both dripping wet from your pond escapades. His hands rest on both sides of your head, his face is now inches from yours.... centimeters, “Nice try.” The words coming out of his mouth felt feral. You struggle to catch your breath, looking up into his inquisitive eyes; his body was consuming you and his eyes were asking you for consent. The tension you released earlier this morning was now creeping up your spine.

You manage to squeeze your hand between your bodies, “Truce?” you say to him, trying to sound as sweet as you possibly could. 

Alex looked down at your hand, pushing himself in an upright standing position, “Truce.” 

Finally able to breathe, you look down at yourself to realize that you are soaking wet. You ring out your shirt with your hands and push all of your stray hairs back, revealing your porcelain complexion. “I’m drenched, I’m going to dry off.” You say to him, accidentally flirtatiously. “I’ll see you soon for supper, yes?” 

Alex smiles at you, “I look forward to it.”

You head inside and lean against the door when you shut it, reaching a hand to your head to steady yourself. Whenever you are around Alex you turn into a pile of soot. You put your hands in front of you to look at them, imagining what it would be like to have them on Alex’s chest. You were so incredibly close to making a move, but your morality pulled you back. _I’m probably just reading the signs wrong_. 

You step out of your damp clothes and throw them in your washer. Now, completely naked, your run from your laundry room to your bathroom. You grab a quick shower and get ready for dinner with Alex and his family. You throw on a pair nice jeans and your old college sweatshirt. You pull your hair back into a loose braid, admiring your new highlights, courtesy of the sun. You slip on a pair of white skater sneakers, and then you are on your way.

Walking to Evelyn’s you can’t help but notice evidence of the seasons changing. Some trees are a deeper green, while others are bright. Some areas of grass are wild and unruly, others are tamed. You had never taken the time to notice these things in the city, and you are grateful to have this opportunity. 

You arrive to Evelyn’s house a little late, you seemed to have gotten caught up in your admiration of the natural world. You let yourself in like usual and turn the corner to the kitchen, there you see Evelyn and George, bickering about something they saw on the news. “Hey guys!” you say to them with a wave, “Alex in his room?” you say already walking in that direction.

“He is dear!” Evelyn says as she looks at George with a smile.

You don’t even knock on his door this time, you just barge in. Unlike the last time to entered Alex’s room, he is fully clothed and staring at the bookshelf in from of him. 

You walk over to him and as soon as you see his face you feel a tightness in your chest. His face is sorrowful and regretful, all of the negativity he is feeling is held in the lines of his mouth. 

“Hey, what’s up Alex?” you ask him, genuinely concerned about his well being. 

“I’m sorry you are always running into me like this...” he musters out a chuckle, “I don’t mean to always bring you down.” 

The words hit you hard. _Does he really believe that he is a burden to you?_ “Alex, that is the farthest thing from the truth. You have to trust me on that.”

He looks over at you with a shy smile and then looks back at the bookshelf in front of him. “Look at all of these books... I haven’t read any of them.” He shakes his hands and looks down. “I just get so nervous thinking about picking one up. But you can’t get anywhere in this world without a brain... I really am worthless.” Tears start forming in his eyes, you can’t stand the thought of seeing him cry again; he means too much to you. 

“Alex,” you say, grabbing him for a hug. “You are not worthless. You are everything! We all have our strengths and weaknesses, but I don’t think you are giving yourself enough credit.” You now pull away from him, holding both of his shoulders at arms length with your hands, staring deep into those sparkling eyes. “If you could see yourself from my eyes, you wouldn’t feel this way at all. You are more capable and intelligent than you give yourself credit for. You came into my life and completely turned it upside down. A ‘worthless person’ wouldn’t be able do that.”

Alex is looking at you, bewildered by your words. His eyes, scanning your face, almost as if they are looking for a sign that you are joking. You aren’t though, you mean every word, from the bottom of your heart. You smile at him and caress his cheek with the back of your hand, wiping away a tear. 

“Dinner is rea-- Oh!” Evelyn peaks around the door of her grandson’s room. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to interrupt anything! Dinner is ready whenever you are.” She gives you both a wink.

You and Alex both scramble on your feet, you both seem to be incredibly embarrassed, but nothing was happening. Why would you feel this way? You walk down the hallway together giggling and looking at each other in your periphery. 

You make your way to the kitchen, and George and Evelyn immediately stop talking as soon as you both enter, looking at you with a light in your eyes. 

No one says anything for the first couple of minutes of dinner. You and Alex keep glancing at each other over the table, stifling giggles every now and then. Finally, George breaks thee silence, “So, Alex, want to explain to me why you were soaking wet this afternoon?” 

You and Alex couldn’t help but laugh out loud, one of the heartiest laughs you have ever experienced. “I threw him in the pond, George.” You say, uncontrollablylaughing.

“Hey!” Alex interrupts, “I threw you in first!” Laughing along with you.

George and Evelyn look at both of you and then back at each other, completely unsure what is happening between the two of you; and honestly, you totally understand.

The rest of the dinner, you all spent joking around and laughing with each other. Once again, Evelyn served you all some chocolate cake and you indulged in a couple hands of Rummy. It was familiar, but in a beautiful kind of way. The experience was the type of familiar that you could depend on, one that makes you feel safe and secure. 

Once Evelyn and George head to bed, you and Alex stay for some cleanup duty. “Not so fast,” you say to him, stopping him from reaching into the sink. “I remember what happened the last time I let you do the dishes.” You say with a chuckle. “I’ll do them tonight.” 

Alex threw his arms up in surrender, smile delicately placed on his face, “Suit yourself, farm girl!”

While you are doing the dishes, you feel Alex’s eyes on you the entire time; it drives you totally insane. Once you are finished, and gathering your things eventually, he says, “You know, you are right..... about what you said before.” Now guiding you along to his front door. “I’m not going to give up! I can do anything I put effort into. Thank you for helping me see that.” 

You both now turn to face each other, standing in the archway of the door. “You know,” he says to you with a sly smirk, “Maybe one of these days we can grab dinner at the Saloon together and discuss phi-los-ophy, or what ever you smart people talk about.” 

You can’t help but laugh, “That sounds great Alex.”


	16. Bitter-Sweet Summer

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Couldn't sleep tonight guys! so I chewed out another chapter!
> 
> Enjoy ^-^

Your final days of spring were uneventful. You harvested the last of your crops, and prepared the chicken coop for the upcoming heat wave; summer is finally here!

You wake up and put on the coolest articles of clothing that you own, a white tank top and a pair of ripped khaki shorts. You finish off your outfit with your favorite brown work boots. You step out onto the porch and are immediately suffocated by the humidity and blinded by the sun. On that note, you decide to run back in your house and grab an old baseball cap to shield your eyes and face from the harsh UV rays.

Looking out into your field you see a lot of debris that you need to clear up. _Ugh, fantastic_. You grab all of your tools from your chest and head out to your land. Your stamina has really increased since you moved here at the beginning of last season. You ferociously chip away at rocks and destroy logs and tress that stand in your way. Before you know it, you clear away most of the debris that appeared on your farm.

Now that you had a blank slate to work with, you begin to till your land to prepare for your summer crops. carefully calculating each plot to fit the appropriate amount of sprinklers. 

_I think it’s time for a field snack_. You body is pretty exhausted from all of the work you have sone, so you craft a field snack and run in your house to grab a bottle of water. You return to the porch to sit, looking out over your work in admiration. _I can’t believe I am fucking killing it_. 

You chug your bottle of water and wipe some sweat from your head, deciding that it is time to go to Pierre’s to buy some seeds.

You run into the house to grab your satchel, lock up your farm house, and head for town.

\------------

Before you stop at Pierre’s, you stop in quick to say hi to Harvey and Maru. 

“Hey guys! What’s up?” you say as you push the glass door to the clinic aside?

Maru, looking at you exhausted, says “Waiting for this last hour to pass so we can head to the beach.” Suddenly, Maru is sprung awake, “Hey! You should join us! Everyone goes to the beach on the first day of summer!” 

“Yeah, sure! Sounds like a lot of fun!” You say back to her. “ I’m going to head to Pierre’s now then and get all of my seeds, I’ll see you at the beach.”

“Don’t forget sunscreen!” Harvey shouts at you as you leave the clinic. You laugh to yourself, you love how protective Harvey is.

You make your way over to the building next door, the air conditioner hitting you face felt heavenly. You can’t help but let out a relieved sigh. 

“Hey Pierre! I came to purchase some seeds.” You say to him as you make your way to the counter. 

“Sure thing, miss. Let me know when you are ready to check out.” he says flatly. Pierre always seems like he is elsewhere when you visit the store. 

Looking through the aisles you decide to pick up some melons, blueberries, tomatoes, and hot peppers. That should be good enough for this season, at least until you expand your farm a little more. 

You walk up to the counter, seed packets overflowing your basket. Pierre perks up as soon as you place the basket on the counter. “All of this!” he exclaims.

“Yessir!” you affirm. Pierre loves his business, so it means a lot to him that you support his shop rather than JoJo Mart, even though the seeds are cheaper there. 

“Alright, that’ll be 10,000 gold.” He says to you, almost wincing at the number. 

You fumble in your satchel and pull out the gold that you owe Pierre. “Have a great day, Pierre!” you say as you stuff seeds into your satchel.

You walk to the door, and take in one last moment of air conditioning before you leave the store. The walk to your house feels like it is hundreds of miles away, and when you return, you immediately drop your satchel and run to your fridge for more water; drinking like a madwoman. 

After you have successfully quenched your thirst, you decide to get ready for the beach. After all, you aren’t going to plant anything today until all the soil is moist, you haven’t the energy. 

Since moving to Pelican Town, you haven’t had much time to unpack a lot of your clothing. As you have needed, you search through boxes and then wash whatever it is you wore and put it away. You search the boxes vigorously, desperately trying to find the box with your bathing suits.

Finally, you find one. It’s a grey one piece that resembles an apron, lined with white and navy fabric at the hems. It’s an old favorite of yours, because it makes you feel extremely sexy.

You slip on the bathing suit, and walk over to your mirror to check yourself out. _Damn._ You really have gained a lot of muscle since you have been working on the farm, you are really firming up. The back of your bathing suit is entirely open, revealing your toned back. Every movement you make shows off a new muscle group. 

You put on a pair of athletic shorts and put your hair into a braid, grabbing yourself a towel, baseball hat, and some sunscreen. _So Harv doesn’t lose his shit_. And you are out the door.

You make your way towards the beach, taking the path along the bottom edge of your farm. Eventually you pass Marnie’s and you see Shane struggling with a cooler. 

“Need some help there?” You yell at him, running over to help him regardless of his answer. 

“I don’t really think it matters what I answer.” He replies to you sharply. 

You ignore his bitterness, you have kind of gotten used to it since you moved here. You grab one handle and hoist up the cooler as Shane does the same. “I assume you are going to the beach?” you say inquisitively. 

“Obviously.” Shane fires back. 

You help Shane all the way to the beach. Once you get there you are totally relieved, you are running on fumes. You place the cooler down and say, “You’re Welcome!” and run towards your friends.

Shane shouts at you, “I didn’t even say thank you!” 

You turn around to look at him, still peddling in the direction of your friends, “You didn’t need to!” waving him off. 

You arrive at Harvey and Maru. Placing your towel down and taking off your shorts and sandals. “Hey guys!” 

Maru looks up at you with a look of terror in her eyes, Harvey is frantically smearing sunscreen on her back and shoulders. Harvey looks up at you, “You’re next!”

You feel slightly horrified. They way he is rubbing sunscreen on Maru is violent. “You know, Harvey, sunscreen works the same regardless of how hard you rub it in.” you say giggling at the scene unfolding in front of you. 

“I can cover your back” a voice booms out from behind you. 

You turn to look and you see Alex standing there, in all of his divine glory. You can’t help but stare at his beautiful physique, muscles are rippling down every inch of his tanned, dewy body. His wavy hair is blowing in the warm breeze, beckoning you to grab a handful of it. You can’t even remember what Alex said to you. 

“W-what?” you stammer. 

“Let me get your back.” he says amused.

You stare blankly at him. Still no idea what he is saying.

“Sunscreen?” he says, brows raised and eyes wide, shaking the bottle in your face. 

“Oh! Um.... sure. If you don’t mind.” you finally manage to make some sense. 

You pull your braid around your shoulder and turn around for Alex. Your hart is beating so fast you place your hand over it to prevent it from popping out of your chest. 

You hear the sloshing of the lotion as Alex rubs it in his hands. You brace yourself for impact, but as soon as he touches you you jump slightly, Alex removes his hands. “Sorry, It’s just.... sensitive.” you assure him.

A deep, throaty chuckle comes from Alex and he places his hands on you again. This time rubbing the slippery substance allover your back. He lifts up the straps of your bathing suit and touches your bare shoulders, gently massaging the lotion into them. A quiver escapes your body when Alex suddenly locks his hands into yours and raises them above your head, saying “Hands up.” 

You barely manage to nod at him. His hands trail down your arms and to your sides. Your apron style bathing suit has left everything completely open, and you feel Alex’s fingers gently graze the side of your breast. 

Your arms shoot down to your sides and you promptly turn around to look at him, “I can handle the rest!” you say flustered. 

“I’m sure you can.” He says teasingly as he hands you the bottle of lotion. 

You hurry up am rub the lotion on the rest of your body, hoping that your sunburn masks the blush that would otherwise be terribly noticeable on your face. When you are done you toss the bottle back at Alex, avoiding eye contact with him at all costs. 

“Hey you have a pretty good arm, want to play catch?” he asks you, sounding surprisingly genuine. 

“Uh, yeah. Sure thing.” you say to him. There isn’t any touching in catch so everything should go over smoothly. 

You and Alex toss his gridball around for a couple of minutes when Sam runs over to the both of you.

“Why don’t we get a game going, Alex?” He says enthusiastically. 

Alex turns to look at you and you shrug at him, implying ‘why not.”

Alex turns back to Sam and accepts his offer. 

“ Okay, you an I will be team captains. We will flip a coin to see who chooses for teams first.” sam says definitively as he waves everyone over. Maru makes her way over with a coin from her bag and hands it to Sam.

“Heads” Alex says as it’s in the air. 

The coin lands on the backside of Sam’s hand, “Tails.” he says victoriously. 

You all huddle around in a group as Alex and Sam make their way to the front of the pack, Sam picks first and calls Sebastian’s name. He seems extremely unhappy to have been roped into all of this. 

Alex’s turn comes next, but Haley is shouting at him to pick her and he does, with a huge sigh. A wave of disappointment consumes you. 

Sam chooses you next, and you are disappointed. _Although this may be a great time to lay Haley flat on her ass_. 

At the end of the picking, Alex’s team consists of: Hayley, Harvey, Leah, and Elliot. While Sam’s team consists of: you, Sebastian, Abigail, and Maru. 

Alex’s team gets the ball first since they one the coin toss and you all take your positions. Harvey snaps the ball to Alex and Alex fires the ball at an open Haley. “Ew!” she screams as she swats the ball away from her body. 

“Why did you even want to play, Haley?” Alex says running over to her frustrated, through his teeth.

“Because I bought this new bikini and I wanted to show it off, Alex.” She hisses back at him. 

Alex drops the conversation there. He shakes his head and gives her an eye roll. Alex’s team tries three more times to move the ball to the opposite end of the beach, but he fails miserably due to the lack of team work. Although, Harvey seems to be giving it his all. 

Sam grabs the ball off of the sand and now you and his team all set up to play offense. Sebastian snaps the ball back to Sam and you run long and deep. Sam notices you running and throws it ahead of you. To your surprise, he actually makes a great throw. The ball falls into your arms, butsuddenly you feel a large object hit you from the side. 

Of course it is Alex. He wraps his arms around you in a way that cushions you from the tackle and you both roll on the ground together. Eventually you come to a stop and he is on top of you, looking down into your eyes. You aren’t sure if it is your imagination, but he seems to be lowering himself on to you, coming closer and closer to your face. 

“Alex!” Haley screams from the distance. She storms over and pushes him off of you, “I want to go home.” _God, she sounds like a child_. 

You look over at Alex who is trying to regain himself on the sand. “I’m having fun Haley. I want to say.” He says defiantly. 

“Too bad. I’m tired.” she says, “Come on.”

“Haley, I said no.” his voice now borderline yelling, body large and standing up straight. 

“Fine, Alex. We are over.” She runs back towards town, crying. You doubt the tears are sincere. She’s either trying to manipulate Alex, embarrassed from not getting her way, or both. 

You look over at Alex and he shakes his head and lets out a sigh. He looks at the group and says, “I’m sorry everyone.” Before he chases after Haley. You look at him wide-eyed, hoping that he will turn around and forget about her. But he doesn’t. He vanishes across the bridge into town as tears for in your eyes.

The rest of the evening flies by in a blur. You have a hard time enjoying yourself knowing the man you care so deeply about is chasing after another woman. 


	17. A Day in the Life of Alex

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry I have been away for a couple of days! I ran a 5K and have been helping my grandmother out a lot! 
> 
> I really wanted to write this next chapter from Alex's POV, so here you go!

The sand on his feet burned from the heat of the sun. Each step he took a new area on the bottom of his foot stung. The rays from the sun were causing him to squint, making the muscles in his face extremely tense. Beads of sweat rolling down his face. 

Alex had no idea why he was running after Haley, her nonsense had been getting the best of him recently; more so than usual. Up until recently, he was just able to brush off her child-like tantrums, but his feelings had been changing.

Alex and Haley have been together since their junior high school. She was the hottest girl in school and worked for the school yearbook and newspaper. Haley was always taking pictures of Alex during his games, and he loved the admiration. When they got together, everyone was envious of their relationship; they were a power couple. Everyone always made sure to mention how incredible they looked together.

_Ugh. Why am I doing this?_ he said to himself as he crossed the bridge into town. 

The stone bridge was harsh on his feet, harsher than the heat. Or maybe the heat had made him sensitive to the stone. Haley’s house was right across the bridge, he had almost caught up to her on the way there. He opened the front door and heard Haley slam the door to her room. _God, she’s a fucking child_. 

“Haley, Come out of there.” He boomed as he reached for the knob on her door. Unsurprisingly, it was locked. 

“Go away, Alex.” She hissed from the other side. “Why don’t you just go hang out with your new girlfriend.”

_Here we go again._ “Haley, she’s just a great friend. I told you that.” he replied exhausted of this conversation. But there was almost a part of him the liked thinking about the farmer as his girlfriend. His mind wandered to the day he threw her in the pool, her nipples were hard and completely visible through her shirt; but the thing that made his chest warm most was her laugh. He shook his head and tried to snap out of his trance. 

Haley opened the door to look Alex. her eyes barely looked as if she had cried. He knew it was all for show, she would never ruin her makeup. “I want you to stop hanging out with her.” she said to him, wickedness thickly glossing her eyes. 

“Haley I can’t do that.” he was shocked by her reaction. _Is this an ultimatum_? 

“If you want to be with me, you will.” Her eyebrow now raised at him, arms firmly crossed over her arms. 

“Haley...” he said, making his way towards her. 

“No Alex. I’m not doing this anymore.” she said as she shoved him away.

Alex didn’t know what to do, his heart felt _torn_. His relationship with Haley hadn’t been what it used to be. He didn’t look at her the same. Usually he thought this behavior was cute in a way, but now he is just exhausted. His mind drifted back to the farmer, she always came to his mind at times like this. She was kind and caring, and she never tried control him. But he had been with Haley for so long; she was familiar. 

Alex put his back on the wall in Haley’s room, gradually sliding down it. His hands laced themselves into his salty hair. “I think I need some time to think, Haley.” He said to her flatly, starring a hole into the floor in front of him.

“Are you fucking kidding me Alex?” she screamed at him, “are you fucking serious?”

“I just don’t know anymore Haley. I’m sorry.” he said as he made his way to his feet again, this time leaving Haley’s room. 

“Alex, I’m so sorry!” She said as she frantically grabbed his arm. “Please I’m so sorry! I don’t want to lose you.”

Alex usually felt guilty when Haley turned into a puddle of sorrow, but this time he saw right threw her act. She was constantly trying to manipulate him, and he was over it. He pulled his arm out of hers and silently left her house. She followed him to the door, yelling violent apologies at him, apologies that he would have usually accepted. He kept walking to his house, not looking back once. 

“Home already, Alex?” His gram, Evelyn, said to him as he entered the house. She was sitting on her favorite purple recliner in the living room. 

Alex didn’t reply to her. He walked over, knelt down, and put his head on her lap to cry. 

Evelyn silently rubbed his hair, “What happened dear?”

“I broke up with Haley.” he said to her through sobs. 

“Look at me, Alex.” she said to him. 

Alex looked up at his Gram, and she had a soft smile on her face. She continued, “You are a good boy, Alex. You deserve someone who cherishes you and wants you to be happy.”

“I want that so desperately.” he replied back to her breathlessly. 

Usually Haley and Alex would have made up by now and everything would return to normal. But this time he didn’t want that. This time he knew his worth. 

Just as he was calming down, the door bell rang. Evelyn went to get up but Alex ushered her to sit down.”I got it, Gram.” He said as he got up and wiped the tear trails off his face. 

He walked over to the door, composing himself for a moment before he opened it. When he opened the door, he was shocked to see the farmer standing there. She was so incredibly beautiful. Here petite, fit frame was totally consumed by his shadow. Her face was sun-kissed, and totally illuminated by the porch light. 

“Hey,” she said to him meekly. “Listen I don’t want to cause you any trouble. I brought over the beach towel you left, but I also wanted to tell you that I don’t want to come between you and Haley; I want you to be happy.” 

Her sincerity was radiating off of her words, he replied “I broke up with her. I had enough of her bullshit.”

Alex could tell that the farmer was hiding a smile, and that drove him absolutely crazy. She was obviously flustered. She pushed her hair behind her ear and looked up at him to say, “If you need someone to talk to about everything, I’m always here.”

“How about we talk about it over dinner tomorrow at the Saloon?” he replied with a grin. 

The farmer was barely able to hold back her excitement, “Yeah, sure. I guess so.”


	18. Stardrop

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I had a lot of fun writing this chapter!
> 
> It is pretty long so I do apologize that it takes a bit of time!
> 
> I hope you all enjoy it and thank you all so much for the support! ^-^

You walk home from Alex’s house with a huge smile on your face, you can’t even contain it. You have no idea what has gotten into you, but you are extremely excited to have dinner with Alex tomorrow evening. _Is it a date? Or does he just feel comfortable hanging out with me now that he ditched Haley?_ You shake off your thoughts and rush home to your farm house. 

When you arrive you throw all of your beach supplies on the floor and rush over to the phone, “I gotta call Maru..” you whisper under your breath. 

You dial your friends number, and it seems like you listen to ten minutes of dial-tone before your friend picks up.

“Maru! Can you come over? or I can meet you somewhere? We need to talk!”

Maru replies back, worry weighing down her tone, “Is everything okay? Of course I can meet you. Is it an emergency?” 

“It is! Meet me at the Saloon?” and before you give Maru the opportunity to reply, you hang up. 

Rushing into your bedroom, you throw off your bathing suit and towel that is wrapped around your waist, and grab the cleanest dirty shirt from a pile of clothes you have on the floor. You spray yourself with some perfume that has tones of periwinkle and whipped cream, and head out the door; you aren’t really trying to take time to look decent right now.

Usually, on your walk into town, you take the time to admire the environment around you. This time you put your head down and book it to the Saloon.

When you get there you are greeted by, not only a frantic Maru, but a panicked Harvey as well. They rush over to you and shout all different kinds of questions at you about your physical health. They poke and prod you, lifting up your arms, and looking at your hair. 

You let out a laugh, “Guys I am fine.” You say to them, remorseful that you worried them so much. _I should have specified_. “I really only wanted to talk to you about what happened when I dropped Alex’s stuff off.”

And in that moment, both of their faces went from worried, to extremely curious. 

“OH?! Well then let’s go in and grab a table?” Maru says, excitement being held back.

She grabs you by the arm and looks at Harvey to hurry him along. You enter the Saloon and you all grab a table by the window. You sit down and let out a sigh, looking back and forth between both of them .

Emily comes over before you manage to get a word out. “Hey guys! Happy to see you all!” she says in a cheery manner. “ What can I get you guys started?”

Before you or Maru could order, Harvey speaks up, “Three waters with lemon and maybe some artichoke dip?”

You and Maru look at each other and roll your eyes. In public, Harvey likes to look like he is healthy, but behind closed doors he lives off of microwave meals and coffee. 

You wait until Emily is out of sight before you begin, “So Alex and Haley broke up.”

“What else is new?” Maru scoffed at the thought.

“AND..” you demand, “He asked me out to dinner, here, tomorrow night.”

Both of your friends now look at you with their mouths hanging wide open. A moment of silence passes before they formulate a sentence. 

Maru starts,”I can’t believe this.” 

“Jee, thanks Maru.” You say to her, half joking/ half serious. “I didn’t know I was that undesirable.” 

“I think what Maru means..” Harvey starts, giving Maru a look that says ‘watch your wording,’ “Alex and Haley are always breaking up, but he always runs back to her right after. Alex never really had eyes for anyone else, at least not until you came. This all sounds.. serious.” 

That smile that you have been trying to control all night comes out in full force now. you let out a small squeal and throw your head down into your arms. “What if it isn’t a date though?” you ask as you whip your head back up. You look at both of them, hoping for some reassurance. 

“Well, if he didn’t specify then I guess it isn’t safe to totally assume that it is a date.” Harvey says you you. The words burn as they come out of his mouth. You look to Maru but she is shaking her head in agreement. You are grateful for their honesty, but still slightly disappointed. 

“So how do I go about this?” you ask, desperately needing an answer to the question.

“Well, just dress as you normally would.” Maru suggests.

“And read his body language and the situation before making a move.” Harvey interjects, pointing his finger in suggestion at Maru as she nods to assure him he is making a good one. 

You let out a heavy sigh and nod, “Okay, that seems simple enough.” 

“You can always ask him.” Maru says to you. “If you really aren’t sure, just let him know.”

“Do you think that would go over well though?” You say concerned.

“I don’t think it’s a terrible idea.” Harvey responds. “The worst that can happen is that he will say it was just a platonic meeting.” 

You agree, Alex doesn’t really seem like the type of person to get angry with someone for wanting clarity.

“If I may say, I think you are a wonderful woman.” Harvey says to you sincerely. “You have been a bright spot within this community. He would be crazy to reject you.” 

“Harvey is right. At the end of the day, know your worth. If the worst happens, know that you deserve someone who recognizes you for the beautiful soul that you are.”Maru adds.

Both of them reached out to touch your hand. Harvey placed his hand over your left, Maru your right. “Thanks guys. I’m so lucky to have built a relationship with you both. You mean the world to me.”

The rest of the evening you all engaged in light hearted conversation. You talked about plans for the summer, and your dreams about traveling the world. You throughly enjoy your time with Harvey and Maru. 

Eventually Emily makes her way over to you with your artichoke dip and drinks. Harvey and Maru fight over the chunks of artichoke in the cheese with their chips, leaving crumbs everywhere on the plate. You take a couple bites but your appetite is nonexistent due to your anxiety over tomorrow evening. 

When you are all done, Harvey pays for the bill. You thank him repeatedly, but he insists that it is no big deal. 

You all walk out of the Saloon, just in time for it to close. Harvey and Maru wish you a good nights rest that is free from worry. You know that’s not even an option at this point. Maru offers to help you get ready tomorrow and you gratefully accept her offer. 

You part ways with your friends and have a quiet walk home to your farmhouse, this time trying to enjoy the sounds and sights along the way. 

You enter your home and lay down on the couch, putting on your favorite TV show that you have seen one thousand times. You laugh at the same parts until you casually drift off into a soft slumber. 

\-----------------

You wake up alarmed and confused. _Where am I?_ It takes you a second to realize that you are, in fact, on your couch. You gently sit up on your couch, supporting your lower back with your left hand. _Ouch._ In college you had always slept on couches, but your aging body no longer appreciates it. 

You stretch your arms out and let out a wild yawn. Looking around your surroundings, stopping at the window to admire two cardinals outside.

Saturday mornings on the farm are your favorite. You are never in a rush to get anything done, especially now that Robin upgrade your coop, you don’t even have to worry about feeding the chickens. You lazily make your way to your bedroom and change out of your clothes from the evening before; putting on your work attire.

Your first steps outside are accompanied but a huge breath of fresh air. _Today is going to be a great day._ You water your crops and hum the theme song to the television show you fell asleep to the night before. Any anxiety that you had yesterday magically disappeared from your system. You were still uncertain about where you stood with Alex, and what tonight was supposed to be, but you were looking forward to spending time with him. 

After your daily farm duties are done, you decide to head back in to your farmhouse to take it easy until Maru came over. You put on a face mask, turned on your record player, and sat to enjoy a moment with yourself. Thoughts of Alex floated through your head, and a giddy feeling started to build up in your stomach. 

You head into your bathroom to wipe your face mask off and take a quick shower. By the time that you are finished, you hear a voice come from the kitchen, “I let myself in!” 

You turn the corner and see Maru sitting at your kitchen table playing solitaire. Solitaire was her favorite game because it was a “single player” game. “Hey, Maru! Perfect timing.” you say to her.

“I hope you aren’t planning on going to the Saloon dressed like that.” She says with a laugh.

“Honestly, I wish I could. I have no idea what to wear. Everything I think of is either too much, or too little.” you say back to her ambiguously.

“Well,” she starts, “that’s why I am here! Let me know when you dried off and I’ll be right in.”

You give Maru a nod and head into your bedroom. You dry off and rub lotion on your freshly shaven legs. You pick out a pair of black, cheeky underwear and a bralette to match. “Okay, Maru, you can come in!”

A minute passed before Maru comes in, “Sorry, that hand of Solitaire got pretty heated,” she said completely serious. 

You laughed and threw her a sarcastic glance, “I’m sure it did.”

Maru shrugged off your snarky remark and walked over to your closet, “Hmmmm...”

You stare at her from your bed, waiting impatiently to see what she was going to come up with. You were transported back to the dress shop that you went to before the Flower Dance; reminded of the talent Maru had for putting together outfits. 

“Here.” Maru said you you, bringing over a couple of options. “Alex is sporty, and relaxed. You should match his vibe.”

You look at the options that she had laid out in front of you. You grab a pair of boyfriend jeans and a light green tube top, completely deciding to ditch your bralette. After you get dressed, Maru walks over to your closet and grabs a pair of your red Teva sandals, and you are ready to go-- well almost. You curl your hair with your straightener and as some mascara to your already luscious eyelashes. 

“Are you sure this doesn’t look too.... well.... romantic?” you question Maru.

“I think it is the perfect balance, it can go either way.” she says back to you with a soothing tone.

You sigh and shake your head in agreement. “Well, I guess it’s time that I head into town, no?” 

Maru gives you a generous smile, “That it is!”

You and Maru make your way out of your farmhouse towards the Saloon. You talk to Maru about your anxieties on your way there. Eventually you stumble upon the Clinic, and Maru parts ways with you while saying, “Listen, just be who you always are with him. Things will work out, okay?”

You shrug and give Maru a grin, waving at her as she passes through the glass doors of the clinic.You get to the entrance of the Saloon and you stop and stare at the brown door in front of you. This door separated you from a sea of uncertainty. Whether or not you were ready to, you opened the door and stepped inside.

Walking up to the counter, you see Gus wiping off some glasses with a white cloth.

“Hey Gus, is Alex here?” you ask him. _Of course he’s not here, dipshit. He’s nowhere to be seen._

Gus looks up at you from behind the counter with a smile, “Yeah! We’ve been waiting for you. Let me take you to the back room.”

_Back room_? You hesitantly follow Gus behind the two swinging doors and down a long hallway. Eventually he stops at a doorway and gestures for you to enter. 

You turn the corner and are immediately rendered speechless. The room is small and quaint. The lighting is rather soft, and there is a gentle hum of music coming from a record player in the corner. Alex sees you and immediately stands up, staring in your direction with a velvety smile.

“Thanks for this, Gus.” Alex says to the porky gentleman, never taking his eyes off of you. 

Time seems to stand still as you float over to your chair. Your focus was extremely shattered and your heart was filled with anticipation. Sitting down, your fingers curl into the palm of your hand; unable to feel your sharp nails chip away at your skin. 

You and Alex are now sitting across from one another. You notice that he seems incredibly fidgety. Finally, he says, “I’ve never dined in here before.” 

“I had no idea there was a private room attached to the Saloon.” you say with an airy chuckle, pushing a piece of hair behind your ear.

“It’s nice back here!” he added enthusiastically, looking around the room. 

You nod your head and hum in agreement.

“So, uh, anyway,” he continued, “I reserved this room so we can talk.” placing a hand behind his head to rub the back of his neck. 

At this point, your heart feels as if it were about to explode out of your chest. Thankfully, Emily walked in the room with dinner. _Did he order for me?_ “A grilled steak for the gentleman.” Emily said with a smile, placing the large plate in front of Alex. “And baked fish for the beautiful lady.” Emily placed the plate down in front of you and gave you a wink before leaving the room.

“You said baked fish was your favorite! So I hope you didn’t mind...” He looked at you concerned. It was a bold move, but it was extremely thoughtful. You were surprised he even remembered.

“Not at all! Thank you.” you say turning your head away to hide your blush. 

You and Alex both dig into your dishes. Silence falls over both of you as you eat, but your anticipation grows with each bit. What did he want to talk about?

“Hey, Alex?” You say to him, “what did you want to talk about?” Usually you would wait for him to open up, but you can hardly handle the tension anymore. 

“Oh..” he said with a chuckle, “ummm, well I just really wanted to say that I appreciate your presence in my life. I only broke up with Haley because you helped me see my worth.”

You stare at him, wide-eyed. You want to hear more, the voice inside of your head is begging him to continue-- and he does.

“When you first moved into town, I felt.... well...” he stopped for a moment. “I’m sorry, I’m still trying to figure everything out.” 

“It’s okay Alex! Take your time.” you assure him, you are in no rush to leave this room. 

“Well, I felt... drawn to you for some reason.” he said. You peered into his mossy green eyes and all of his emotions were bundled up in his pupils. 

“I felt the same way, Alex.” the words came out like vomit, like it was second nature to respond to him in that way. 

“I’m sorry it took me so long to tell you all of this. Things were complicated before.” he said, looking off into the distance with a solemn expression.

“Alex, all that matters is you said it now. And I appreciate you opening up to me about all of this. You mean a lot to me.” you say, reaching over the table to put your hand on top of his. 

At that moment, the song that was on the record player changed. It was a familiar song that you weren’t able to pinpoint where you had heard it before. 

Alex stood up, never letting go of your hand as he walked over to you, “This is the song we danced to at the flower dance.”

He didn’t even have to ask, you were already on your feet, swaying with him on the floor. You placed your head on his chest and listened to his heartbeat. Every thump escorting you to a deeper level of euphoria than the last. You took in the smell of his clothes, and the way his hands felt on you. You looked up at him, his eyes locking on yours. “Thank you for this, Alex.” 

He placed his forehead on yours and closed his eyes, “Anything for you.” 

The words warmed your heart. You never felt more secure than you did in his arms. You both stay in that moment together, getting lost in time. Eventually you realize that the song you had originally started dancing to had stopped, and you were just standing still in the middle of the room. 

“All done?” a sweetly innocent voice rang from around the corner. 

“Yeah, we are all finished here!” you both manage to say as you pull apart from one another. 

You and Alex wrap up your leftovers and head out of the Saloon together. Outside, Alex turns to you and asks, “Can I walk you home?”

You smile, “I’d like that.”

You and Alex head for your farmhouse. The dirt pathway you walk is completely illuminated by moonlight. You and Alex walk close together, grazing each other’s hands every so often. Eventually you reach your residence and you head up the stairs of your porch. Your hand shakes as you fumble with your keys. Finally, you manage to slip one in and open the door. You turn to look at Alex, who is staring intensely into your soul. 

“I’m happy you invited me out.” You say to him. Just ask him to come in. “We should do this again.”

He nods at you, “Thank you for meeting me tonight.”

This is the part where you both should part ways, but you are both too fixated on one another. Alex step closer to you and you step closer to him. Just as you are about to reach out for him, your phone rings.

You and Alex both laugh, unsure about what was going to happen. “I guess you should get that?” He says to you jokingly. 

“I guess so.” you shrug.

Alex steps off your porch and heads down the dirt path, “I’ll see you!” 

“Have a safe walk home, Alex.” you say as you wave at him, watching him disappear from view. 

You head in the house and check the caller ID. _Of course it was fucking Maru_. 


	19. Rainy Days

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Shout out to ~Rebecca A. Vaughn~ for giving me some inspiration of where to take this story. 
> 
> You all are fantastic and I am overwhelmed with the support that you all are giving me!
> 
> I hope you all enjoy :3

You press the play button on your answering machine, “Hey! It’s Maru, I was just wondering how everything went tonight. Call me back when you get this! I don’t care what time.” 

Curse your friend for being so caring. 

You pick up the phone and dial her number. You swear you don’t even hear a dial before Maru picks up. Was she waiting by the phone? 

“Tell me everything that happen. Are you okay? Did everything go well?” she says, more demanding than usual. You can hear Harvey in the background trying to get her to relax; that’s only making matters worse. 

“Hello.” you say sarcastically.

“Come one! I have been waiting by the phone all night please don’t keep me in suspense!” she’s practically begging you now.

“It was, really great Maru..” you say, barely able to contain your feelings. 

“Yeah yeah.” she replies unimpressed. “I want details.”

“We just had dinner! and we talked about how we felt. He told me that he appreciates my presence in his life.” you say to her. “We also danced a little bit, and then he walked me home.”

“You guys danced?” Maru asked, uncertain.

“Yeah.” you trail off. “Oh! I totally forgot. He reserved the private dining room for us, so We were in the back. The song we danced to at the Flower Dance came on so we figured why not.” 

“It was definitely a date then.”Maru’s tone was the same as when she tested her crazy hypotheses and was analyzing the results. 

“I guess so. I never really asked him.” you say to her, bracing for a rabid Maru. 

“That’s okay. It’s probably best that you just... enjoyed yourself.” she says back in return. You are shocked she didn’t tear you apart for your uncurious nature. “Did he make a move or anything?”

“Well not really. I mean I rested my head on his chest while we danced. And when he walked me home there was a moment where I thought he was going to..... but then the phone rang.” you say in a playful manner.

“Oh no.... oh NO! I am so sorry.” Maru said defeatedly. “Harvey was telling me to wait but I was just so impatient and I thought you forgot!”

You let out a laugh, “It’s okay, Maru. I’m not really sure what was going to happen. I’m probably not reading it right.” you say matter-of-factly. “Besides, if he really wanted to make a move he probably would have done it anyway, regardless of the phone.” 

“I don’t know!” she exclaimed. “He seems to be pretty into you from the evidence I am collecting. Maybe he wanted the moment to be right? Or maybe he is still uncertain about how you feel? There is a lot of grey area right now.” 

“I don’t know? Alex really doesn’t seem like the type to wait for a moment.” you say back at her, seriously talking yourself down from everything that happened. 

“Hey, there are no such things as ‘types’ of people. I know that to be certain. When I first met Harvey, he wasn’t my ‘type,’ but here we are.” 

You can hear Harvey in the background questioning Maru’s recent statement; you can’t help but chuckle. “I guess you are right, Maru. I don’t know? I think I’ll head over there tomorrow and see what he’s up to. Maybe we will talk about things then.”

“That sounds like a great idea! And after you are done you can stop by the clinic and tell us everything.” she says sweetly.

You chuckle, “Sounds good to me. I’m going to head to bed now, I’ve had a long day. I’ll talk to you tomorrow.”

“Talk to you tomorrow! Sweet Dreams!”

You hear the click on the other end of the phone and hang up yourself. _What a night_. You head into bed and slip on your favorite nightshirt, slithering under the covers. The cocoon you have wrapped yourself in has you feeling safe and secure, allowing you to drift off to sleep quite quickly. 

\--------------------

Morning came too soon, but you looked outside and you noticed large droplets of water falling from the sky. _What a relief_. 

Rain always used to bother you in the city, but on the farm it was a beautiful thing. Rain meant that you didn’t have to tend to your crops, which saves you several hours of day time. 

You roll around in bed for a little bit with your eyes closed, listening to the droplets of water hitting your roof. Every now and then you are startled by a boom of thunder. 

Eventually you decide to get out of bed. You get dressed and reach for your raincoat and rain boot. You pull them on and head out to your chicken coop to collect your eggs. The chickens produce double in the summer, their egg production is inversely related to the amount of melatonin they produce. The less they produce, the more eggs you get. 

You gather twenty-two eggs from the coop and leave the door open for them in case they decide to venture outside. You know they won’t, they hate the rain, but you don’t want them feeling trapped. 

Inside your farmhouse you reach for your pile of used egg cartons and throw your eggs into two of them. You put one in your fridge, and you decide that you’ll use the other as an excuse to go visit Alex. 

While you make yourself some brunch, you turn the weather station on to have some noise in the background. According to the station, you have a full week of sun ahead of you; so you really decide that you are going to cherish the day. 

You sit down at your table and savor some scrambled eggs that you cooked up and some sausage links. When you are finished, you wash the dishes and decide to head out and make your way to see Alex. 

You decide to take the lower path into town, the one that crosses Marnie’s Ranch and Leah’s cabin. 

Eventually you reach the road to town. You pass Jodi’s house and hear loud rock music coming from what you assume to be Sam’s room.

As you are passing Emily’s house, you hear the door open. You look and see a petite blonde woman glaring at you. You completely stop in your tracks to look at her. 

“Can you come in to talk please?” she says more sorrowful than angry.

Her tone shocks you at your core. All you can do is shake your head in agreement. You step towards Haley, who is holding the door open for you. Your boots sloshing on the wet ground. 

You enter the house and look around. You notice a red couch and chair in the left hand corner, closer to you. Books a thrown all over the coffee table. 

“Sit.” Haley says, as she motions for you to sit in the red armchair. 

You sit down and are still completely speechless. You have no idea why you were summoned here. Well, you sort of do, but it wasn’t your fault. _If Haley has a problem she should be talking to Alex, not me_. 

“Listen,” she starts, fiddling with the ends of her golden hair. “I know that you are the reason thatAlex all of a sudden doesn’t have an interest in me.....”

The words provoke a rage within you. You can’t contain the fire burning within your head. The words you say, fly out of your mouth, “No, you’re wrong Haley. The reason that Alex doesn’t have an interest in you anymore is because of YOU, not me. You are cold, and shallow, and completely self-absorbed.”

A thick silence falls between both of you. Haley stares at you with a great intensity, you regret everything you just shouted at her.

“Haley.... I-I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have...” you say, unable to make eye contact with her. 

As you were fumbling for your words, the door behind you opened. You look back, and standing in the frame is Alex. Drenched from head to toe. _What is he doing here_? 

“Alex! You came!” Haley shouts as she runs over to him. Her emotions totally changed, she was now bubbly and sweet. You can’t help but roll your eyes. 

“What’s going on Haley?” Alex snaps at her, obviously not in the mood for whatever shit Haley had planned. 

“Come, sit down Alex.” She takes him over to the couch with her. Of course she plops down basically right on top of him. 

“I’m so sorry I have been so selfish lately Alex.” She says with the world’s largest puppy dog eyes. “I was just apologizing to the farmer too. I have been horrible.”

Suddenly, you feel horrible. _Was she really going to apologize before I cut her off_? You look over at Alex, and his face is emotionless, it’s kind of terrifying. 

“That’s nice of you Haley.” Alex says flatly. 

“I want a second chance Alex.” Haley says, still trying to keep up her sweet facade.

You look over at Alex, but he isn’t looking back at you. He’s looking down at his large tanned hands. 

“Haley, I don’t think that is a good idea.” He replies back to her. The anxiety that is building in your chest is crippling.

“Come on Alex. We have been together since high school. We shouldn’t throw what we had away because of a dispute.” She says as she grabs his arm with her perfectly manicured hands. “I know I have to change, and I want to.”

Alex lets out a deep breath. He looks at you this time, and says, “Can you give us some time to talk about this in private?” 

A sudden pain arises in your chest. You feel as if you have been hit with a bullet. You had been foolish to believe that you an Alex could have had something. “As you wish.” you hiss at both of them. 

Alex has a look of despair on his face, “I’m sor-”

“Stop.” you say, walking over to him. You toss the eggs you brought for Evelyn on his lap, hoping that they would break all over him. “Give those to your grandmother.” 

You turn and walk out the door. You make an effort not to turn around, you need to seriously push this whole situation behind you. You start the way you came.

As you are passing Jodi’s house, you see Sebastian leaving and throw him a slight smirk. 

“Hey!” you hear a feminine voice come from within the house. “Didn’t you hear the Television?”

You shake your head. “No?”

“Tornado warning has been issued for Stardew Valley. Come inside.” Jodi said, standing in her door way, hand reaching out to you. 

_Shit_. You didn’t really have a choice. You walk into Jodi’s house. As soon as you are inside, she takes your coat from your shoulders. Sam walks by at that moment.

“uh... Hey.” he says, sincerely confused as to why you were in his house. You don’t really blame him. You kind of ditched him and his friends to chase after Alex this summer. 

Before you can say anything, Jodi commands Sam to run and grab you a towel and a fresh shirt. Sam doesn’t hesitate.

“Thank you, Jodi.” you say to her, trying to hide the sadness in your tone. 

“No problem, love. This is payment for all of those cauliflowers you gave me last season.” She says with a wink. 

Sam comes out of his room and says, “I have some dry clothes for you in there and a towel. You can use my room to dry off and change!”

“Thank you, Sam. That’s really kind of you.”

Sam looks at you with an eyebrow raised, almost as if he picked up on something. 

You enter his room and change out of your wet clothes. The towel that Jodi has is incredibly soft and absorbent _. Is this a fucking cloud_? 

At that moment you hear a knock on the door. “Decent?”

“Yeah!” you say, wrapping your hair in a towel, “Come in!”

Sam walks in with a smile, “You know this is my room right?”

You let out a chuckle and fake a smile, but you really aren’t in the mood to joke around right now. you Sit down on his bed and let out a sigh.

“What’s going on?” Sam says as he leans up against the bookshelf. “I can tell something is wrong.”

“I don’t really want to make a big deal about it Sam.” you say to him, throwing yourself back on his bed. 

“Okay, well then let me take a wild guess.... it’s Alex.” He says to you with a smirk. 

You shoot yourself into an upright position, “How’d you know?” 

“Well, I heard a rumor that you were at the Saloon with him the other night.” he said, making his way over to you on the bed, taking a seat right next to you. “And I saw both of you walk into Haley’s house this afternoon.”

“Observant.” you say to him flatly, shifting on the bed. 

“It is obvious that you two are into each other.” he says nonchalantly. “Everyone saw the way you looked at each other at the beach.” 

“Yeah, well I think Alex just liked the attention,” you say, a little more angry than you would have liked. “He’s patching things up with Haley right now.” 

“Wait, didn’t you just go on a date yesterday?” Sam said genuinely confused. 

“Well no one ever specified it, so I guess not.” you say to him trying to hold back tears.

“Well it’s his loss. I would totally rather date you than Haley.” he said moving over towards his keyboard. “You are totally more.... interesting.”

You stare at him blankly. You don’t really care about what Sam thinks of you. But he is trying his best and you sincerely appreciate it. You decide to change your demeanor, so you flash him a half smile. 

“Hey,” Sam says, sounding like he had an epiphany. “Come to the luau with me tomorrow?” 

You hesitate, you totally aren’t interested in Sam. _Why is he asking me this?_

Apparently, Sam notices the look on your face and bursts out laughing, “I don’t mean like... on a date. But I dig you, it would be cool to just hang out.”

You sigh in relief, letting out a small chuckle “Oh thank Yoba, Sam. I thought I was going to have to break your heart.” 

Sam let out a hearty laugh, “You wouldn’t want to do that, I would write an angsty song about you.”

You both laugh with each other. You are very grateful that Sam has gotten your mind off of everything. 

You look around his room and notice a huge book shelf filled with books on music history. You drop your gaze lower and you see his TV and you follow the wires that leave the back of the TV and see an old PS2.

“Damn, Sam. What games do you still have for that?” you say, making your way over to the TV. 

“Oh, I only play Tony Hawk Underground: World Destruction Tour 2. I love the skating aspect but the soundtrack is A M A Z I N G!” he says enthusiastically. 

“Want to play?” you say to him with a brow raised. 

“Wait, seriously?” he says back to you, extremely excited. 

You shrug your shoulders, “Sure, I was always a fan of these games too.” 

He jumps over next to you and turns on the TV, while he does that you turn on the PS2. You both sit in front of the TV waiting for the game to load. The rest of the evening you and Sam play THUG2 and enjoy time with one another. It’s nice to get your mind off of Alex, and spend time with a friend. 


	20. Luau

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I had off of work today, so I have been churning out words at Starbucks all day!
> 
> I hope you all enjoy chapter 20! 
> 
> I know I say this all the time but everyone who has been supporting me has been fantastic and your encouragement really does mean the world to me :3 I am big UwU for you all!

You didn’t get home from Sam’s house until 2:00am last night, so this morning you are having a difficult time assimilating into consciousness. 

You had a great time last night. You always loved to play video games with your grandfather, so it was a nice distraction to get your mind off of Alex. 

Today is not the day to lazily roll around in bed, however. The Luau starts at 9:00am, and you promised Sam you would be at his house at 8:30am. 

You head outside right out of bed, you don’t think the chickens will mind seeing you in your pajamas. The sun is shining bright today, and the warmth is comforting. Today seems like it will be a good day, but thoughts of Alex have been flooding your head this morning. _I’m such a fucking idiot_. You should have never let your guard down, it all seemed too good to be true. 

After you are done tending to your chickens, you head over to your crops and harvest some melons that are ready to be picked. They smell absolutely wonderful. You take a moment to breath in the earthy smell. You walk over to your selling bin and place a couple there, saving some for some townspeople, and of course yourself. 

You head in your house, to start getting ready for the luau. You take a good look at yourself in the mirror, and you are immediately drawn to the puffiness underneath your eyes. It is obvious that you didn’t get a good night sleep. You decide to put some cooling cream underneath your eyes, and take a cool shower. 

You step into your bathroom and turn on the shower, begrudgingly undressing-- you wish you were still in bed. You step into the cold shower, bracing yourselffor the sensations you are about to feel. You breathe out sharply through your teeth, but eventually subsume yourself to the shower temperature. 

After you are finished, you feel more refreshed. The shower was completely rejuvenating, and totally what you needed. You walk back into your bedroom, towel tied loosely around your body, and head over to the mirror to check out your face. The puffiness in your eyes went down a little, but it will have to pass for the time being. 

You grab a bathing suit out of your drawers, this time deciding on a black bikini; plain and simple. You grab a sarong and wrap it around your waist to use as a skirt. The bright yellow and blue contrast beautifully with the black on your bikini. You grab a pair of your hiking sandals and a sun hat and you are out the door on your way to Sam’s house. 

\----------------

When you get to Sam’s house, he is already outside on his skateboard. He doesn’t seem to notice you. You walk up to him, mid-ollie, and shout, “Hey, Tony Hawk, is that you?!” 

Sam jumps in the air, sending his skateboard flying into the bushes in front of his house. “Yoba! What the fuck?!” he says turning around to look at you, trying his hardest not to laugh and remain stoic. 

“You can’t be mad at me,” you say with a demanding tone, also reaching a hand out to help your friend off the ground. 

Sam grabs your hand and you hoist him to his feet. “You’re a dick, you know that right?” he says laughing while brushing himself off. 

“I know, it’s part of my charm.” You say sarcastically, dramatically flipping the hair under your sunhat. 

Sam is dressed in a plain grey shirt, with a pair of plain navy blue swim trunks. As usual, he has his grey and white skate sneakers on. His hair is even more golden now that it’s summer, and he has a nice tan. You watch as he gathers his things off the ground. He has a whole backpack that is jammed packed full of sunscreen and snacks that Jodi made him. 

“You ready to head out?” he says, now looking at you with a smile. 

You take a minute, you really don’t feel like going to see Alex and Haley in all of their Abercrombie and Fitch wonder today. “As ready as I can ever be.”

You and Sam make your way to the beach, talking about music along the way. He tells you about his hopes to make it big with his band, but unfortunately he is missing a drummer right now. That is not anything your can help him out with, sadly. 

You make your way to the luau and you see gigantic tables set up on the beach, around a giant brown pot. The smell coming from its direction is almost intoxicating. There is a dance floor on the far corner of the beach, and the speakers are playing vibrant, upbeat music. 

Across the dance floor you notice Alex and Haley. You suddenly feel incredibly alone. Haley looks incredible in her bathing suit, as usual; Alex, like always is a living Adonis. 

“Hey,” Sam interrupts you, placing a hand on your shoulder. “we are going to have a lot of fun today. Fuck them.” 

You let out a heavy sigh, “right.” The word comes out of your mouth, but you don’t believe it for a second. 

“Do you have anything to put in the soup?” Sam asks.

Sam informed you about how important the soup was last night. That this soup pretty much dictates how well the valley will do for the rest of the year. As if you didn’t need another reason to be anxious today, the governor is here to do the tasting. You let out another heavy sigh, pretty soon you’ll be out of breath, and nod. You brought some strawberry wine that you had made from your harvest in the spring. It had been fermenting in a cask, so hopefully it is acceptable. 

You head over to the step stool that is by the big pot, and add some of your strawberry wine. _Here goes nothing_. 

You step back down and turn around and smile at Sam, “If i ruined this soup I will pack all of my stuff up and leave tonight.”

Sam just laughs and shakes his head, “Come on, stop being so hard on yourself. Let’s go see what Sebastian is up to.” 

You and Sam walk away from the soup pot and make your way over to Seb, who is dressed in his usual black attire. _Isn’t he hot in all that black?_

“Hey Seb!” you and Sam say in unison. 

Seb looks over at you both and the misery is apparent judging by his face. “I want to die.”

You can’t help but let out a chuckle, “I have to agree with you, Seb.” You look over Seb’s shoulder and you see Alex, staring at you with wide eyes as Haley rambles on about something. You don’t want to do this today, you don’t even throw him a smile, you just turn your head to look at Sam. You sincerely try to focus on what he is saying, but you can only think about Alex. _Why is he doing this? Does he really love Haley?_ The whole situation is driving you mad.

“Did you put sunscreen on!?” a bell like voice rings out from the distance. You turn and look at Maru who is running over to you, frantically waving a bottle of sunscreen in the air. Harvey is trailing behind her, slightly out of breath. 

Maru reaches you, and you can’t help but to admire her physique. She is wearing a bright red bathing suit and it looks incredible against her skin tone. She let her hair natural for the day’s event, and the curls in her head are radiant. She’s a goddess. 

You let out a laugh, “Not yet, Maru! 

“Well you better, I don’t want you to risk getting Melanoma.” she says as she pours a huge glob of white lotion into her palms. 

As Maru is frantically rubbing sunscreen on your shoulders and back, Harvey finally reaches you all. 

“Hey, Harv.” you say, looking at him with an eyebrow raised. For a doctor who promotes healthy lifestyles, he certainly is out of shape. 

Totally winded, Harvey gasps out, “h-h-ey.”

Maru finishes up and says, “Put out your hands.”

You comply to her request, fearful of what might happen if you deny her. She squeezes a glob of warm lotion into your palms and says to you, “That’s for your face.” 

How big does she think my face is? You rub the copious amount of sunscreen into your face. As you are doing that, Maru observes the situation that is unfolding in front of her. “Why are you with Sam?” she asks bluntly, “No offense, Sam.” 

“Wow. A lot taken.” Sam replies back with a laugh. 

“It is a long story, Maru. One I don’t really feel like facing today.” you say to her, defeatedly. 

“Alex took back photography princess over there and Sam is just trying to help get her mind off everything.” Seb says from the background. “.....long story short.” 

You all look at Seb, shocked that he knew the whole situation already. He replies to your baffled looks with a simple shrug as he returns to his brooding. 

“How come you didn’t call me?” Maru asks you, concerned. 

“Well I was going to, but I had to take shelter in Jodi’s house yesterday when the tornado warning came through.” you say to her, “Sam and I got to talking and playing a video game, and I kind of lost track of time.” 

“Oh thank God,” Maru says, “I thought you were replacing me.”

“You are irreplaceable, Maru” you say with a smile, gently hugging your friend. 

At that moment, Mayor Lewis announces that it is time for the governor to try the first bowl of soup. All of a sudden your heart sinks. You sincerely hope your harvest is enough to wow the governor. 

You watch as the governor walks over to the soup and pours himself a bowl. He is a well groomed, older gentleman dressed head to toe in purple. He also has a caterpillar like mustache that graces his upper lip that you can’t help but admire.

The governor takes a sip of soup off of his spoon and smacks his tongue on the roof of his mouth a couple of times. All of a sudden, his face goes from stoic and contemplative, to joyful. 

“Ahh.... That is a very pleasant soup! The produce from this valley never disappoints!”

A huge wave of relief washes over you. _Thank Yoba._ Everyone around you cheers, and Sam places two hands on the back of your shoulders, “I told you!” 

You smile, it feels really good to be involved in a profession that is so fulfilling. You have never farmed before, but you are obviously doing something right. The only thing that could make this moment better would be if you were able to share it with Alex. You keep a smile on your face, and try to hide the fact that you are totally incomplete. _This should be a happy moment_.

You and your friends head over to the soup line. Of course you are almost directly behind Alex and Haley. The only thing that separates you from the couple is Pierre.You avoid looking in their direction, but you totally eavesdrop on their conversation. 

“You want to dance after we are finished eating?” Alex asks Haley. 

“I don’t really want to get sweaty Alex.” she replies sharply. 

_Of course she doesn’t. She obviously hasn’t changed Alex._ In that moment, Sam interrupts you with a whisper, “You better not be doing what I think your doing.”

_Why is he so observant?_ “What do you think I am doing?” you whisper back. 

“Eavesdropping on Haley and Alex.” he replies back to you in a hushed tone. 

All you can do it shove him a giggle. You were caught redhanded, there is no use trying to deny it. 

“Why don’t you go over and grab some seats at the table, I’ll bring you some soup.” Sam says to you, slightly nudging you out of line. 

You agree, you don’t want to be in this dreaded line anymore. You walk over to the table and take a seat. You sit down and take off your sunhat, your head is getting a little sweaty. You look down to the opposite end of the table and see George and Evelyn there. _Of course._ You decide to go down and say hello to them, after all, you shouldn’t take your feelings about Alex out on them. 

“Hey guys!” you say sweetly. 

“Hello dear! It is so good to see you.” Evelyn says to you

George smiles at you and grabs your hand with his, rubbing the top of your hand with his other. You and George have come a long way since you moved to Pelican Town. 

“The produce from your farm is incredible” Evelyn says as she takes another spoonful of soup. 

“Thank you Evelyn! That means a lot to me!” you reply back to her. 

“Alex’s birthday is this Saturday.” George says to you, “You should come over for his birthday dinner.”

“Oh... I don’t know George. I’ll have to see.” you say to him. You watch as disappointment forms on his face. 

“Well if you decide to change your mind, dear, you are always welcome.” Evelyn says back to you. 

“Thank you both” you say to them, genuinely upset about how events have been unfolding. “I’ll see you guys around!” 

You head back to your seat and eventually your friends join you. They all try the soup and rave about how wonderful it is and how happy they are to have you in town. It all means a lot, but at the same time you can’t help but wonder what Alex thinks. You look down at his grandparent, and notice that he isn’t joining them. 

“He is sitting at a different table.” Sam says to you matter-of-factly. 

_How did he know?_ You lean into Sam, “I’m really not having a good time. I just feel so totally.... not myself.”

“Finish your soup, and we are going to dance.” he says to you. 

“I don’t know Sam..” you say to him.

“I wasn’t really asking.” he laughs, taking another mouthful of soup. 

You all finish your soup and Sam reaches for your arm. You allow him to guide you out of your seat, reluctantly.

You both make your way to the dance floor and dance to the upbeat music. You are hesitant at first to let go, but Sam takes your hand and twirls you around. A genuine laugh escapes your lips and you decide to remove all inhibition. You start to lose yourself in the moment. You are happy to have Sam right now. You love Maru, but she keeps asking you if you are okay, and that is not what you need right now. Sam isn’t giving you time to dwell on your feelings, he is moving you along.

You and Sam become quite winded, and both decide to head back over to the group. On your walk over to the table, you can’t help but glance over at Alex. He is watching you with an intensity that sends a shiver down your spine. You don’t linger in your gaze, and drop your eyes down to meet your friends at the table. 

“You both looked ridiculous.” Seb says to you and Sam and you sit down. 

“Maybe hat was the point, Seb!” Sam laughs, challenging his moody friend. 

“We were all going to get a game of beach volleyball going, do you guys want to join?” Harvey asks you.

“As long as I’m not on your team!” you joke around. 

Harvey laughs with you and agrees. You split off into teams. Your team consists of Sam and Seb, and Harvey’s team consists of him and Maru. You figure it’s fair because Seb won’t contribute at all. 

You all walk over to the net and take your places on each side. Just as you are about to start, A voice booms out of the background. “Looks like you need another teammate, Harvey.”

Alex strides over, a devious smirk spread across his face. You look over at Sam and give him a look of desperation. He looks back at you, his face saying ‘what am I supposed to do.’

Maru looks over at you wide-eyed, and you are there to return her look. By this time, Alex has made his way into a spot next to Harvey. Harvey looks at Maru and then back at Alex before saying, “uh sure... yeah. Why not?” 

Sam and Maru were chosen to play rock, paper, scissors to see who would serve first. Best out of five, Sam wins in three turns; he triumphantly turns around to high five you and Seb.

You serve the ball first, the contact of the ball on your hot skin stings slightly. You hit the ball to Harvey and he hits it back out of bounds. You and Sam touch hands to celebrate your first point. Looking over at Alex you notice he looks totally peeved. 

You serve the ball again, but this time Alex rushes over to hit the ball back to your team. As he reaches for the ball you see all of his muscles tense up and move. His skin is glistening with sweat, his hair caressing his face. You are there to hit the ball back with force, accidentally hitting the ball out of bounds. 

“Our ball.” Alex says, staring you down through the net.

“Yeah, whatever.” you say with a shrug. 

Everyone else is silent through the match. It is obvious that the only reason Alex joined was to compete against you. _What is he playing at?_ Eventually you reach the tie point; 11-11. It’s your serve and you hit the ball over the net, sun beating down on your bare body. You hit the ball over the net and Alex goes to spike it. You dive into the sand, surprisingly making contact with the ball.

“I got it!” Sam shouts out, spiking the ball back to the other side of the net. 

Alex also dives down, but the ball hits his arm at an awkward angle, and flies backwards out of bounds. 

You and Sam turn towards each other and go in for a hug. He lifts you off the ground slightly and spins you around. When he puts you down, you both run towards Seb who now has a panicked look on his face. 

You both tackle him to the ground. “We couldn’t of done it without you, MVP!” Sam yells sarcastically. 

“I don’t do anything you, shithead!” He yells back. 

You and Sam laugh and giggle as you help Seb to his feet, brushing off the sand from his black hoodie. 

“I can’t stand both of you.” he mumbles under his breath. 

You turn to look over at your friends. You notice Alex is sitting on the sideline, hands cupping his head. 

“Good game, guys!” You shout at them, running over in their direction. As you make your way over to them. Alex watches you for a second, and then stands up and turns around to walk away. 

“What’s his problem?” Maru says.

“Not sure. Who cares, we had a lot of fun.” you say loud enough for Alex to hear. Once he heard you he stopped for a second to look over his shoulder, but then decided to keep moving toward Haley. _Get some autonomy, Alex_. 


	21. Burns

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry it has been a while since I released a chapter! I just was recently on vacation and am finally back home! 
> 
> I hope you guys enjoy this! I will be writing more frequently again now that I am back :3
> 
> Your support is totally overwhelming and wonderful <3

The Luau ended in shortly after the volleyball game you played with your friends. The harsh summer sun that was once beating down on your neck had now faded into gentle moonlight. You and a bunch of others stayed back on the beach to sit by a bonfire, curtesy of the town bachelor Elliot. 

You took a seat in between Sam and Maru on an old piece of hardwood. The log you are on leaves you with a slight tinge of pain in your lower back. The bikini you once wore is now covered in a cozy, blue sweatshirt that Sam provided for you. The golden light coming from the fire warms the faces of everyone sitting near it. You find yourself staring straight ahead, getting lost in the dance of the flames. The way they intertwine with one another and combine is captivating you. 

The fire provides you with warmth and comfort, but internally you are frozen. The past few days with Alex have been a roller coaster of emotions for you. You were certain that he felt the same way about you, but apparently you were totally wrong. You glance through the fire at him, and your eyes meet his. As soon as you make contact, Alex throws his head down looking at his fiddling fingers. Haley leans over to Alex and whispers something in his ear. In response her purses his lips together, forcing a smile while nodding at her. Haley walks away towards town and eventually disappears, leaving a lone Alex by the fire. 

You turn your head away from the whole situation, glancing up into the stars. You take a deep breath in and smell the salty sea air. As a little girl, this was always one of your favorite sensations. “Here.” It seems like Sam’s voice rings out from a far away place. 

You look down at your friends hand, in it you see one, gigantic, fluffy marshmallow. “Where did you find a jumbo marshmallow?” you ask, reaching for the treat. 

Sam turned around and pointed to Elliot’s cabin, “Everything Elliot does is dramatic, that includes marshmallows.” 

A laugh escapes your lips, “Can’t argue with you there.” You were in such a trance that you hadn’t realized that Sam had walked away from you. You fumble with the marshmallow and grab a stick that is laying on the ground near you. It’s not the greatest, but you don’t feel like wandering out to the tree-line to find a better one. _It’ll do_. 

You place your one free hand on your side and use it as a means to push you up. Your muscles are already starting to ache from the competitive game you played earlier. You take a few steps across the sand, taking time to notice the way the squishy, cool sand feels between your toes; the feeling is completely therapeutic. 

When you reach the fire, you hold your marshmallow out. From this distance, the fire feels more dangerous and less secure than it did from your seat. Every now and then, you get hit in the face with a cloud of smoke that makes your eyes burn; you have to shift your head around to shield your face from the smoke. You turn your head to the right, and you see Alex has found a comfy spot by the fire with his marshmallow. He looks resplendent in the light of the fire. All of the curves on his face are being caressed by the light in the most gentle way. 

“Ow, fuck!” you exclaim. Unknowingly, you were lost in your admiration and your marshmallow caught fire and burst on the end of your stick-- sending a molten glob of sugar onto your arm. Before you were able to gather your thoughts, two strong hands grabbed your burnt one. When you look up, you see Alex fiercely looking at your burns. “What happened?” he said to you, a little more aggressive than you expected. 

Before you were able to respond, Harvey hurried over to your side, “What happened?! Let me take you back to my clinic!”

Alex, now looking in the direction of Harvey gripping down harder on your arm, “She can come back to my grandparents house if she’d like, I’m sure Gram would be able to patch her up too.” 

_Why?_ You want to go back with Alex so desperately, but you are so exhausted from playing this same game with him. You look at Alex, pulling your arm away, and say, “I think I’ll head to the clinic. Harvey is a doctor after all.”

Alex looks at you, an emotion you are unsure of is swallowing his face. It looks like a mixture of sadness, anger, and understanding all wrapped into one. You through him a small smirk and turn towards Harvey, who immediately takes your arm.

“Doesn’t look too bad, actually. Your prognosis is pretty good!” Harvey said with a light hearted laugh. You can tell that he was picking up on the social cues of the moment. _This is his idea of breaking tension?_

“Great, do whatever you have to!” you say, both of you now making your way to the clinic. Before you make your way to the bridge, you glance over your shoulder to get one final glance at Alex. However, instead of seeing him by the warmth of the fire, his body is now consumed by the darkness. His back is turned to you and he is looking out into the waves, hands lacing through his hair. Your desire to run over and comfort him is consumed by the overwhelming disappointment of the last few days. _It is pointless._

You and Harvey walk back in silence. Maru even catches up to you both after catching word that you had been burned; apparently she had been in Elliot’s cabin going to the bathroom at the time.The mood is a solemn one. You can tell both of your friends know what is on your mind, judging by the looks that they are giving each other. You wonder if they notice you noticing them. 

At the clinic, Harvey takes you back into his examination room and has a second look at your arm. In the background, Maru is already prepping the supplies that will be needed to bandage you up.

“I just need to address the size and depth of the wound.” Harvey’s voice cuts through the silence like a razor. Looking over his glasses at your arms, he makes some rather interesting faces.

“Here is everything you’ll need, Harv.” Maru interjects from behind you. Her long legs leading her next to your side. 

You remain silent, it’s almost impossible for you to formulate a thought right now. Your head is chaotic, and clarity seems but a distant dream. The only response you are capable of currently is a nod. 

Maru sits next to you on the examination table, and Harvey dresses the wound. There are some tiny blisters that have formed on the site, and he is careful not to burst any of them. You watch as he grabs a sterile package of gauze and wraps your arm up. 

“Ibuprofen?” He asks you abruptly.

“Hmm?” you manage, you weren’t really listening to what he was saying. 

Maru sighed next to you, gently draping her arm around your shoulder, “I know it’s hard. Alex really lead you on and that’s his loss.”

Finally, tears that you have been bottling up all day are finally released. You lift your hands to your face and sob into them. Harvey now makes his way over to you, and both of your friends console you until you relax yourself a bit. 

“I really was so stupid. I don’t know why I ever thought I would have the opportunity to date Alex.” you say, wiping away the last tears from your face. 

Both Maru and Harvey remain silent. Maru is gently rubbing your back and Harvey is gripping your hand tightly in his. It’s nice to just let things out to the both of them without them actually responding. You just need to be listened to right now, and you are lucky to have such emotionally intelligent friends who understand that. 

“I just can’t believe I allowed myself to be so fooled by his persona. I genuinely thought I was something he wanted.” you continue, words coming out stronger. “I think he was just obsessed with the attention that I was giving him. He loved having someone to use emotionally, and that’s all I was-- his emotional blanket.” 

Your friends nod at you in unison. Just as they do, the buzzer rings out through the clinic. Harvey looks at both you and Maru with a confused look as he walks to the front of the clinic to see who is there. You and Maru sit in silence while Harvey goes to investigate. 

You hear commotion coming from the front of the clinic, and eventually you hear the bell that alarms Harvey when there is a patient that has walked through the door. A pair of footsteps grow louder, and eventually you see Harvey come back into the room followed by Sam. 

Sam walks over to you and kneels down in front of you, “How are you feeling?” He asks as he grabs your arm to look at it.

“I’m fine, Sam. You didn’t have to come all the way up here.” you reply to him, wincing slightly from his not-so-gentle touch. 

“That’s fine! Alex told me what happened, and he said I should come see what happened. I didn’t mind at all, you are a good friend of mine.” He replied to you with a smile. 

“What did you just say?” you hiss at your blonde friend. 

“Umm..... Alex told me I should check up on you because everyone wanted to know what was happening?” Sam replied, slightly oblivious as to why that statement would upset you. 

“I’m sure he did.” you say, storming up off of the table and sprinting out the door to the beach. Your friends, incredibly worried, sprinting behind you unable to catch you. Eventually you make it to the beach and you look around menacingly, looking for Alex. You scan the crowd of individuals until your eyes fall upon him, sitting in the sand along the shoreline. 

You stomp over to him, conviction in your step, “Why didn’t you just come yourself?” you shout at him, unable to control your emotions anymore.

“Wha-” Alex tries to squeeze in a reply. Alex tries to lift himself off of the sand with his hands, but you push him back down by his shoulder. He is now gazing up at you with wide-eyes. 

“Don’t pretend like you don’t know what I am talking about, I know you aren’t stupid Alex. You lead me on. I had feelings for you and you abused that! Please just leave me alone! Don’t get my friends involved.” you bark at him with closed fists. Rage is blinding you at the moment, you know you are overreacting to what Alex did, but you let your emotions linger for far too long. 

You begin to walk away, but Alex tries to grab your hand. You swiftly remove your hand from his, you don’t have time for this anymore, “Don’t! Please, Alex!”

Tears begin to fall from your eyes and you run back towards town. You pass the bonfire and your friends who finally caught up to you. The only thing that you want in this moment is to be alone, and you are going to obtain that for yourself. 

You run across the bridge and by Haley and Sam’s house. You can’t go home, your friends will certainly find you there, and that is the last thing that you want at this moment. 

You head into the Cindersap Forest and make your way to the area of the valley where sewage water is deposited into the sea. You sit down on the edge of the cliff and look out into the horizon. You look to your left and you can see the faint glow of the bonfire in the distance. 

“What the hell are you doing here?” a cold voice breaks through the darkness.

You abruptly stumble to your feet and turn around to identify the voice. You squint your eyes and see a figure walking towards you. Your heart races in your chest. Finally, you are able to faintly make out the face-- it’s Shane. 

Breathlessly while grabbing your chest, you say “Shane. You scared the shit out of me!”

“Tsk. Whatever.” he throws back at you, sitting down next to you with a six pack of pale ale. 

Shane is dressed in his usual green polo and blue sweatshirt. His almost purple hair is shining beautifully in the moonlight. He runs a hand across his face after taking a sip of ale, and you can tell that he hasn’t shaven in a day or two judging by the sound. 

“What are you doing here?” you ask him, hesitantly. 

Shane looks at you for a moment, unsure whether or not he should respond for you. You watch him scan your face, but eventually his hard features soften. He reaches down for a can of ale, hands on to you and replies, “I believe I asked you first.” 

You sit down next to Shane, taking his peace offering from his hand. Any anxiety you felt about being in the woods alone with him has..... decently subsided. “Just needed to be away from all of the bonfire ruckus.” you say to him, cracking open the can in your hand. 

“Don’t blame you there.” he says back to you flatly, looking over in the direction of the bonfire.

“How about you?” you ask him as you take a sip of ale.

“None of your fucking business.” He says as he puts the rim of his can to his lips. 

You can’t help but laugh and shake your head. You avert your gaze back to the horizon. Your head getting lost in the sounds of crashing waves. You and Shane sit in silence. Usually you are bothered by silence when you are with a stranger, but this is nice. There is something serene about enjoying scenery with an unbiased party. 

You and Shane finish off a six pack of ale together. Your head feels slightly dizzy from the alcohol. The last time you were this drunk you were with Maru. You glance over at Shane, but he seems unaffected by it all.

“I think it’s time I head home.” you burp out with a giggle. 

Shane visibly rolls his eyes, “You probably don’t even know which fucking way home is. I’ll help you.” Shane stands up and brushes his pants off and extends an arm down to help you. 

You grab Shane’s forearm and hoist yourself up, slightly stumbling to your feet. Shane guides you back through the forest, alerting you every now and then to a log or rock that you need to watch out for. You rest your head on Shane’s shoulder and breath in a strong scent of alcohol; it almost makes you sick. 

Eventually you make it back to your farmhouse and Shane takes the keys you are fumbling with out of your hands and opensthe door. You stare at the blackness that is coming out of your home and look back at Shane. You throw yourself into his chest and let out a wail, followed by more tears. 

“Um...?” Shane questions you. 

“I really had feelings for Alex. And I really blew everything tonight. I don’t know why I’m not enough for him. I don’t even really know what’s happening anymore.” Your thoughts are all over the place. 

Shane, surprisingly, embraces you slightly, “Long day, huh?” 

The fact that he didn’t reply back to you with a snarky comment shocked you, and also comforted you. You are happy to have spent the rest of the evening with Shane, it was just the company you needed. 

You invite him in to have some homemade wine. At first he seems hesitant, you can tell he isn’t used to trusting people. But eventually he gives in. You spend the whole evening drinking in silence on your front porch. The company is nice, you don’t feel like you have to constantly entertain Shane.

After a certain point of the evening, everything faded to black.


	22. Coping Mechanisms

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Here is another chapter!
> 
> I didn't want you all to be left in too much suspense after the last chapter :3
> 
> I have the entire weekend off so I will be releasing another chapter soon!
> 
> Hope the weekend is as fantastic as you all have been <3

Your eyes begin to flutter open, consciousness racing into your body. You roll over to your side and the aching pain in your skull turns into pounding agony. You wince as you bring your hand up to hold your head. The light that in coming in your room is blinding, burning your retinas from the core. You gradually lift yourself off your bed looking around your room. It is in this moment that you recognize how dehydrated you are. Your mouth feels as if it was made from cotton. At the foot of your bed, you see Shane in nothing but his boxer shorts-- _Are those.....chickens on his boxers?_

Panic hits you when you realize that you have no recollection of the events that transpired last evening. You throw the sheets off your legs and immediately shake Shane awake.

“Shane! SHANE! Wake up!” you shout directly into his ear.

“hru...uggh.” he mumbles into the comforter, eventually drifting back into unconsciousness. 

_Ugh._ You frantically get up off of your bed and run to your kitchen to grab a bottle of water. You chug it within seconds only to have your nausea brought to your awareness. You put one hand over your mouth an dry heave. _Not now._ You grab another bottle of water and make your way back into Shane, who is exactly in the spot you left him. You open the cap on the bottle and throw a little water onto Shane’s face. Nothing. Out of desperation, you wind up and slap him on the cheek whilst shouting, “Wake up, damn it!!”

“The fuck!” Shane, now decently conscious, replies to you. 

“You need to tell me what happened here last night. I don’t remember a single thing.” you demand while handing Shane the half-empty bottle. 

Shane chuckled a little bit and then cleared his throat. He lackadaisically puts the bottle to his chaped lips and takes a few swigs of water. You become impatient and rip the bottle out of his hands. “Shane, please tell me what happened!” you say, now sounding feral. 

“Jeez, relax. Nothing happened. You let me stay here when I told you Marnie wouldn’t be happy with me returning smelling like booze.” He said to you, eyes glossy and bloodshot. “I offered to stay on the couch because I knew this would be your reaction. But you insisted on having me sleep at the foot of your bed.”

A wave of relief washed over you. _Thank Yoba_. The adrenaline that was keeping you up right was now washing it’s way out of your system, and all of aches it was masking are now being brought to your attention. Dizziness hits your head once again and you fall over on to the bed, letting out a groan when you make contact with your sheets. 

“You are going to have a rough day.” Shane says to you in a frustratingly nonchalant tone. He picks himself up off of your bed and gathers his clothes from the floor. “Do you mind if I take a shower?”

“Whatever.” you mutter into your bed. Just at that moment, the phone rang out from the back ground. You reach for your pillow and throw it over your head to muffle the sound. 

“I guess I’ll get it.” Shane said sarcastically. 

Shane walks into your kitchen and picks the phone up,” Who is it?” he answers coldly. After he gets a response he shouts into you, “It’s Maru!”

You tell him to bring the phone into you, and he begrudgingly complies with your request. He hands you the phone and you put it up to your ear, “M-Maru?” you say, rubbing your eyes. 

“Why did Shane pick up your phone?” she says sharply. You have to move the object away from your ear slightly, here voice is kind of piercing today. 

“It’s a long story and totally not what you think I promise.” you say back to her, honestly and exhausted. 

“I’ll take your word for it,” she says suspiciously, “but, you’ll owe me an explanation later.”

You can agree to that. You definitely owe your friends an apology after last evening. You had let your emotion get the better of you. You can only imagine how worried they must have been after you ran away from the bonfire. “Sure thing, Maru. Listen, I am terribly sorry about last night.... I was emotional. I should have never taken my frustrations out on you or Harvey.” 

“I don’t need an apology at all! Trust me we can empathize with what you are going through. I just want you make sure you are okay. Do you need anything?” She says back to you softly.

“I am okay, thank you for checking in on me; you are a great friend.” You say to her sincerely. “I don’t need anything, I’m extremely hungover though.” 

“Okay, well make sure you drink plenty of water and take a shower to get the smell of alcohol off of your body; it’ll help reduce the nausea. Don’t hesitate to call the clinic if you need anything!” Her soft tone had now been exchanged for her usual shouting. 

“Thanks, Maru.” You say to her through a grimace. “Oh, and if you see Sam can you let him know everything?”

“Of course! Be well!” and then you hear a click on the other end. You end the call and throw the phone across the bed.

Laying face first in your bed, you listen to the shower trying to soothe your thoughts. The past couple of hours of your alert life have been a whirlwind. Alex pops into your head and you feel a sting of guilt. Even though he has been kind of shitty lately, he didn’t deserve to be screamed at, at the bonfire. His wide-eyed expression is practically burned into your head. You let out a audible, distressed moan. _Way to act like a brat._

The water in the bathroom shut off, and you hear Shane yell out “Towels?”

“In the top cupboard on the left hand side of the shower” you answer, voice slightly cracking from your dry throat. You bring your hand to your throat and rub it gently, it’s incredibly sore. 

You hear Shane rustle around in the bathroom, slamming the doors as he moves along. _Talk about unresolved trauma_. Shane rounds the corner in nothing but a towel, “I hope you don’t mind, if you do I don’t really care.” 

“Where are your clothes?!” you ask, bewildered.

“In your washer. I need to remove all traces of last night off of my body before I go home to Jas.” He says, looking kind of solemn this time. 

You think about inquiring about it, but you don’t have the emotional energy to deal with it right now. Shane heads into the living room and turns on the TV. You watch him as he leaves the room. He’s not exactly athletic in build, but he’s not unattractive either. 

You get up and walk over to the mirror. The little bit of mascara you wore to the luau is everywhere but your eyelashes. Your hair faintly resembles a birds nest, and your eyes are red and glossy like Shane’s. 

You walk out to the living room and ask Shane, “Have I looked like this all morning?” Pointing to your face, “why didn’t you say anything?”

Shane glances over at you, just barely able to peel his eyes off of the television, “woah, yeah. I guess you have.”

It’s kind of refreshing, honestly. Shane doesn’t necessarily care about aesthetics, or what people think about him. There is a certain kind of beauty in his carefree attitude. When you were living in the city, you always had to look your best. Any man you brought home would have ran away if they saw you looking the way you did now. Hell, even your old best friend wouldn’t have associated with you. Everybody in Stardew Valley has never necessarily cared about how you looked. You stand in the moment, staring at Shane with a slight smirk on your face, “Thanks.”

Shane looks at you confused, brows furrowed. You just let out a laugh and walk away, saying to him “Help yourself to anything in the fridge. I’m going to shower.”

“Already did!” he retorts. You can only imagine how much food is now missing from your fridge. 

You step into the bathroom and undress, immediately throwing your clothes in the hamper. Even the smell of them makes you nauseous at this point. You step into the hot water, and let the water run off your body, washing away any negativity you hold in your heart with it. All of a sudden, you hear your doorbell ring. _I wonder who that is?_

You hurry to finish up your shower and step out onto your squishy bath mat. You grab a towel and wrap it around yourself and quickly rush out to see who came to visit. 

When you make your way into the living room, you are floored to see Alex sitting at your kitchen table. You look over at Shane who just shrugs at you and returns his attention to the television. 

Alex turns around to look at you and immediately gets to his feet. There is an awkward silence that falls across the room. Shane must feel it, because he shuts the TV off and walks into your bedroom, slamming the door behind him. 

Alex glances between both of you and a great deal of anger and sadness forms across his face. He heads for the door and you run over to step in between him and his escape. You place a firm hand on his chest, “This is NOT what it looks like, Alex.” 

“Please just let me leave.” He steps back from your touch, frustrated.

“Please just listen to me, Alex.” You are now pleading with him. 

“I listened to you enough last night. I should have just left you alone like you wanted.” He hissed back at you. 

“Ale-” you start.

“Don’t. You know, you must not have cared about me too much if you were so fast move on to Shane.” he says ferociously. 

You let out an angry laugh that seems to come from deep within your core, “Oh like you should talk! Says the guy who went crawling back to his shit-for-brains ex the day after we ate at the Saloon.” 

At this point Alex has become furious with you. The redness that has come across his face is brilliant, his jaw is tightly clenched. He grabs you by your waist, picks you up, and places you away from the door. Without saying anything, he opens the door and leaves. You run out after him, shouting “Stay away this time! Got it?!”

Alex whips around and sarcastically bows, “As you wish.” He turns around and you watch him until he leaves your property. 

You reenter your house and slam the door behind you. Your rage is driving you crazy. You storm your way to your bedroom and whip the door open. Shane, who was watching TV on the edge of your bed, is now staring out you with a semi-terrified expression.

You walk over to him, grab his scruffy face, and land a kiss on his chapped lips. Shane pulls away and looks at you, totally confused. 

“If people are going to think we slept together, we might as well just do it. I know you don’t really care and neither do I anymore.” you say to him aggressively, climbing on top of him removing your towel. Shane follows your lead and removes his towel, revealing his slightly hard erection. You kiss him aggressively and fiercely, trying to push the thought of Alex out of your head.

You both move back towards the head of the bed, and you reach into your drawer to pull out a condom. You unwrap the rubber and roll it down over Shane’s now completely hard member. You align yourself and sit down on top of Shane. He goes to place his hands on your hips, but you smack them away, “Don’t fucking touch me.”

You grind your hips against his feverishly, longing for a release. You look down at Shane, who now has his hands behind his head with a smug smirk on his face. You don’t really care at the moment, your carnal nature has completely taken over. You hone in on your sweet spot and bring yourself to a climax; not long after, Shane releases too. You immediately get off of him and roll over onto your back, next to him on the bed. 

*Buzzzzz*

“My clothes are done.” Shane says, sitting up removing the condom that is now several centimeters larger than needed. He ties it up and throws it in your trash can, grabbing a tissue to wipe away the excess fluid from his body. He walks away towards your laundry room, and you lay in bed emotionless. You feel worse now than you did before. Tears swell up in your eyes and you try your best to keep them contained. You get up and get dressed quickly, brushing your wet hair into a ponytail. 

You head out into the living room and sit at the table and wait for Shane to finish in the laundry room. When he comes out, he is completely clothed.

You look up at him, barely able to make eye contact with him, “I’m sorry about what happened. I shouldn’t have brought you into my emotional mess.”

Shane just laughs at you in return, “You didn’t bring me into anything.”

You look at him in the eyes now, you can tell that he is totally sincere in what he is saying. You feel slightly more relieved to know that everything that just happened was meaningless. 

Shane sits down across from you at the table, “I know you needed to numb what you were feeling. I heard everything that happened with Alex, I’m not fucking deaf you know.” 

You let out an airy laugh and rub your hand on the back of your neck for comfort, “Thanks, I guess then.” 

“I won’t tell anyone what happened either. This will stay between us.” He says, stretching his arms behind his head, “Plus I needed it too. It was nice to take a break from the alcohol.” 

You sink into your chair and cover your face with your hands. You are not happy about what just happened, but you are thankful that Shane is understanding of everything. You hear Shane get up out of his chair, and you pick your head up to look at him. 

“I gotta head home. Thanks for covering for me.” He says as he makes his way to the door. 

“Yeah, no problem.” you say back to him, grimacing.

Shane leaves your farm house, and the loneliness that you have been avoiding hits you like a freight train. You sink back farther into your seat and allow the emotion to overcome you. You look over at the clock, and a decent portion of the day has escaped you. You pick yourself up from the chair and head out to try to salvage what part of the day you possibly can. 


	23. Summer 13

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> On June 22 I lost my grandfather. He truly was my best friend. The memories that the reader recalls in this chapter are all real things that I experienced. It was really freeing to write this chapter, I am happy that I was able to write about my experiences.
> 
> Stardew Valley has greatly helped me cope with the death of my Pap, and this chapter means a great deal to me. 
> 
> I hope you all enjoy! <3

Beautiful beams of sunlight float in through the window to caress your face. You glance outside and notice the trees breathing with the wind, everything is calm. The past couple of days you have been frantically trying to keep yourself busy to avoid human interaction. Your farm has bee your friend, and it has created a stillness within you. 

It’s times like these that you wish your grandfather were around. When everything was chaotic in your life his deep, yet fragile, voice bestowed peace around you. Nothing would be better than to be wrapped up in his arms right now. You turn your head over to the calendar that you have hanging in your room, it has been exactly one year since your grandfather passed away. Everyone told you that things would get easier with time, but that is a false statement. The overwhelming absence left in your heart is incredibly noticeable, the only thing that has changed is that you have learned how to live without him. 

Your mind flutters back to the final months that you spent with your grandfather. He was admitted to a hospital in the city in the spring for high carbon dioxide level in his blood. The initial diagnosis was congestive heart failure, all he needed was strict monitoring and a diet change. He was discharged from the hospital, and from that point on, he was unable to walk. He bounced around from rehab center to hospital, all unable to definitively diagnose him with anything. 

One morning, you walked into the rehab center he was in, and he was barely conscious. You immediately searched for help, and he was then transferred to the ICU where he was intubated and poked like a lab rat. You watched the rosy pink that usually flushed his face turn to gray as the days passed by. Just thinking about the image of your dying grandfather causes a shiver to move down your spine; the image of his sunken face still haunts you at times. You shut your eyes tightly, on instinct. The only thing that allows you to cope with the situation is that you were by his side through everything. You were there for him when he wanted a cold wash cloth placed on his head. You were there for him when he wanted his mouth swabbed with ginger ale. You never left him, and honestly there was something beautiful about the experience. You were both completely vulnerable with one another, and you wouldn’t trade that for the world. 

Time moved by quickly those couple of months, and once he passed, everything stood still. You’ll never shake away the pain, but he will always be your inspiration. Everything you do, he will continue to be apart of it.

Today was not the day for farming or fishing or mining. You were going to take a day to relax and reflect on everything. You get yourself dressed and ready for the day, and walk outside for some fresh air. You take a deep breath into your belly, breathing out all of sadness that you hold in your heart. You head over to your flower pot, and pick a bushel of spangles. You walk along the cobblestone path that you placed when you first moved in. Eventually you reach a stone shrine. You kneel down and place the flowers on the flat surface of stone, placing your other free hand on the vertical piece. “I hope I can make you proud.” you whisper, a single tear rolling down your face. 

You sit there for a while, picking at the grass and weeds that have grown around the grave. Memories of your grandfather flash in your mind’s eye. You recall the time you were getting ready for bed and he advocated for you to stay up for an extra five minutes with him on the couch. Your mother accepted his offer and you laughed and giggled into the evening, ignoring the five minute request you initially asked for. He was always in your corner, supporting you and pushing you to be the very best person you could be. 

You adored going to the beach with him, you would walk for what seemed like hours. Sometimes in silence, sometimes talking about everything and anything you could. These memories inspired you to pick yourself off the ground. Your grandfather wouldn’t want you to sulk and mourn his absence. You decide to head to the beach and talk a long walk, in memory of your very best friend.

No doubt, today is a solemn one. But you try your best to enjoy the scenery as you make your way to the beach. You pass by Jodi’s house and see her praying the window with Windex. You send her a friendly wave, and she returns the favor. You make your way to the bridge, and as soon as you cross over through the sand, you take your shoes off. You make your way down to the area of the shore where the waves break, squishing the cool sand in between your toes. You take a moment to close your eyes, listening to the waves crash around you. The salty air exfoliating your skin. You stare out to the horizon, thinking about how boundless the ocean is. It is the beginning of all life, yet what exists within it is completely unfathomable. In that moment, you are hit with the realization of how easy it is to get lost in your life’s journey. 

You start to walk along the shore line, drawing lines in the wet sand with your feet with each passing step. The sun isn’t harsh today, in fact, it feels soft on your skin. You are overwhelmed with all of the sensations that you are feeling, and you acknowledge every one as you feel them. You reach a certain point on the beach, and you hear the most beautiful music playing softly from the distance. You look around and suddenly you see Alex, sitting in the sand with a small box in his hand. _Is he crying?_

You hesitate for a moment, wondering if you should walk up to him. In the end, you figure you owed him an apology anyway. You make your way towards him, holding your breath and hoping for the best, “Hey, Alex.”

Alex lifted his head up to glance up at you. When his eyes connect with yours, you can’t help butto look away. You still have some shame bottled up inside of you. “Hey there.” he says back to you, the tone in his voice is very submissive. You look back at him, and there is a softness in his face that comforts you. “You can sit down if you’d like.” He pats the ground next to him. 

You nod your head and make your way down beside him. You both look out into the ocean, the breeze brushing your hair away from your face. Silence falls over both of you, but it is oddly comfortable, given your recent history. Finally, Alex speaks up, “Today is the anniversary of her death, my mother that is. This was her music box. It’s the only think I have left of her..... It’s also my birthday.” 

“Alex...” you have no idea how to continue that sentence. You reach out and put your arm on his upper back. Sometimes this life is so cruel and chaotic. You remove your hand and place it back into your lap, looking down at your hands. “I lost my grandfather as well last year at this time.”

You feel Alex’s eyes on you, but you continue to look down avoiding his gaze, “It never gets easier, does it?” You hopelessly ask him.

In your periphery, you see him shake his head, “No, it doesn’t.”

That was a rhetorical question. You look over at him now, “Alex, I’m sorry for my behavior as of late. You didn’t deserve that and I shouldn’t have let my emotions run wild like that.” 

Alex turns to look at you, “I was.... am a total jerk. I don’t blame you at all.” 

You muster up the energy to smirk at him, “I guess we are both jerks, huh?” 

Alex laughs at your statement and shakes his head as he turns back to look into the abyss, “I guess so.” 

“So...” you say, “have any fun birthday plans?”

“You mean besides sitting on the beach and sobbing over my mother’s music box? Not really.” he joked back at you. The atmosphere between you changed, a weight was lifted off of both of you. “So, you’re into Shane, huh?” 

You let out a guttural moan, “Not at all.”

Alex notices your discomfort and laughs, nudging you on the shoulder. You nudge him back hard, pushing him over on the sand.A look comes across Alex’s face that lets you know that you are in trouble. Laughing you get up and run towards the opposite end of the beach. Before you know it, you feel your feet leave the ground. Two strong arms hold you up in the air, spinning you around. You let yourself go and and allow yourself to get whisked away. Your laugh echoes over the waves. You wrap your arms around Alex’s neck, looking into his eyes. His face was absolutely radiant, his smile warming your heart with each second that passes by. Alex comes to a stop and you both pause to take in one another. 

“Can I cook you dinner tonight?” the words come out of your mouth almost instinctively. 

Alex gently releases your legs, allowing them to fall gently back onto the sand. He looks at you mischievously and smiles, “I think you owe me, no?” 

“Oh really?” you ask him, tilting your head with an eyebrow raised. 

“Really.” He said, now turning to run back into town. “Last one to your farmhouse is a rotten egg.” 

You call out to him, “You’re cheating! You had a head start!” 

“Well I am the birthday boy!” he shouts back at you, almost looking like he winked at you. You both run, full sprint back to your farmhouse. It has been a while since you ran like this. Your lungs burn, but you manage to make it back to your house, not too far behind Alex. 

You both stop on your porch for a moment. You are visibly winded, Alex looks like he barely worked out. There isn’t even a bead of sweat on his face. 

*gasp* “I haven’t” *gasp* “ran” *gasp* “in forever” *gasp* 

Alex lets out a hearty laugh, obviously enjoying your discomfort. You bend at the waist, placing both of your hands on the tops of your knees-- still gasping for air still. Alex comes behind you and grabs your shoulders, lifting them you up into a vertical position. “Put your hands behind your head,” he commands you. You do as he says, “Now breathe deeply. In this position, you’ll get more air into your lungs and relax faster.” You nod your head. Alex still stands behind you, hands on your shoulders. Your breathing returns to normal and you turn around to face him, “Thanks for the advice.” You say to him, genuinely impressed with his knowledge. 

You exchange smiles and you reach for your keys, opening the door. “Sorry it’s a little messy,” you say throwing your keys on a side table. 

Alex doesn’t say anything, he just gives you a ridiculous look. He makes his way over to your fridge, pulling out eggs and milk. Confused, you look at him, “Alex, what are you doing?” 

He just shrugs, “I thought we can make breakfast for dinner.... together.” 

_Together._ The word bounces around in your head, giving you butterflies in your stomach. You walk over to your cupboard and grab some flour and salt, “That would be nice.” 

You gather all of the ingredients for pancakes and he slices some potatoes to make hash browns. As you whisk the batter you can’t stop yourself from looking over at Alex. When you look over at him, he’s usually staring back at you-- smiling. You pull out your skillet and spray some cooking spray onto it followed by pancake batter. Not too long after you both start cooking, a wonderful aroma fills the air. You and Alex don’t say much, the sizzling of the pan is fills the air around both of you. You grab two plates and place two pancakes on each, Alex adds to theplate placing a heaping pile of potatoes and eggs onto each. 

“The complete breakfast is my favorite meal.” He says, looking at his plate with stars in his eyes. He looks like a kid in a candy store. You take the plates back to the kitchen table as Alex walks over to grab some orange juice, eventually meeting you back at the table. You both dig into the meal, and you swear Alex is finished within seconds.

Alex gets up and walks to your bathroom, and your eyes follow him until he disappears behind the door. When he comes back, he stops at a picture that you have hanging on your wall. “Is this your Pap?” he calls out to you, peaking around the corner. 

You take your napkin off of your lap and walk over to him. You stare at the picture that was on the wall, “Yep that’s him.” A small smile forms on your face, the picture is a favorite of yours. You are only a baby in the picture, you are settled into your carrier with a huge smile on your face. Your grandfather’s face is right next to yours, he looks incredibly youthful with a head of wavy black hair. The expression that he is portraying is one of complete adoration and pride. 

“Do you have a picture of your mother?” you ask as you look over at Alex. 

Alex reaches for his wallet, and pulls out a picture. The woman in the picture was incredibly fit and beautiful. He smile jumped off the picture at you. Her long brown hair was pulled back neatly, and Alex was in her arms. “She seemed like an incredible woman, Alex.” 

Tears were forming in Alex’s eyes. “She was. She always believed in me. She was the only one who believed I could be a professional gridball player.” 

“Smart woman.” You say holding the picture, glancing up at his face. He smiles down at you, “You remind me a lot of her actually.” 

You feel the flush come across your cheeks, you look down at your feet and fidget where you stand. You feel a hand touch the bottom of your chin Alex picks your face up to look at him, your heart pounds in your chest. You step away from Alex, obviously flustered, unsure where to look. 

“When you confronted me the other night, you made me realize a lot.” Alex now propped himself on the wall, looking at you intently. “I realized that I do deserve better than Haley. When I came over here the other day, I was coming here to thank you. To be honest, I never thought a woman like you would be capable of having feelings for a guy like me. I want to try this out, I think about you all the time. At first I thought this was just a crush, but my feelings for you only grew exponentially.” Alex pushed himself off of the wall and put his hands on both sides of your torso. “Please give me another chance.”


	24. Anything and Everything

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this chapter took so long! I really wanted it to be perfect! 
> 
> Be prepared for F L U F F! 
> 
> Thank you all for your patience and kind words! It means a lot to me. I never thought I would receive so much love for this story! I am so grateful I can't even articulate how I feel!
> 
> Also, I added an email to my profile! If you have any requests or suggestions don't hesitate to send me some virtual mail!

~Recap~

_You feel the flush come across your cheeks, you look down at your feet and fidget where you stand. You feel a hand touch the bottom of your chin. Alex picks your face up to look at him, your heart pounds in your chest. You step away from Alex, obviously flustered, unsure where to look._

_“When you confronted me the other night, you made me realize a lot.” Alex now propped himself on the wall, looking at you intently. “I realized that I do deserve better than Haley. When I came over here the other day, I was coming here to thank you. To be honest, I never thought a woman like you would be capable of having feelings for a guy like me. I want to try this out, I think about you all the time. At first I thought this was just a crush, but my feelings for you only grew exponentially.” Alex pushed himself off of the wall and put his hands on both sides of your torso. “Please give me another chance.”_

~~~~~~~~

_Someone pinch me._ You gaze up into Alex’s eyes and see nothing but sincerity and longing. You always dreamed Alex would look at you this way, and now he was. The moment feels incredibly surreal. You try to compose a sentence, but nothing comes out of your mouth. The only thing you are capable of doing right now is staring, mouth gaped slightly open. 

Alex steps back for a moment. Looking at you, you can tell that this interaction is now making him slightly uneasy; you know that you have to speak up to help relieve his discomfort. “Alex, are you sure.... about this?” is the only thing you can spit out. 

A wave of relief washes over his face. There is a softness to his features that you love, you have never seen him in this state before; so incredibly vulnerable. Alex steps back over towards you and snakes his arm around your back, pulling you into him by your waist. With his other free hand, he brushes the hair that has fallen onto your face away, eventually allowing his hand to linger and cup your face. He puts his forehead to yours and whispers, “You are the only certainty I have in my life.”

A shiver runs down your spine with each word, Alex’s breath hot on your cheeks. He nudges your face with his nose, nonverbally imploring you to lift your chin up. You obey his request, his lips now centimeters from yours. Your heart is racing. Breath is short and rapid. Alex smiles and closes the distance between you. Up until this point, you have only admired Alex’s lips from a distance. Now, you are admiring the feel of them, and it is sending you into a sensual intoxication. It is slow, and soft. Comfort in a way that words could never replicate. You found your hand reaching around his back, and you tenderly ran your fingers up and down his back. Each kiss growing deeper, adoration overflowing. 

His grip on you is firm, and his hands begin to wander down to your hips. He pushes you up against the wall, and you let out a silken moan into his next kiss. The sound noticeably drives him crazy, and he replies with a growl. His hands are now moving more aggressively across yourbody, and eventually one finds its way underneath your shirt. The contact of his hand on your bare, sensitive skin makes you jump slightly, and you feel Alex smile.

You pull him even closer, now removing any and all space between you both. Your chest is pressed so tightly to his that you can feel his heartbeat on yours. You also notice the incredibly hard, throbbing spot in his pelvic region. The sensation drives you crazy, but it also sparks an enormous amount of anxiety within the pit of your stomach. You pull away slightly, enough to gasp out, “Alex, wait.” 

Alex pulls away, nervously he starts, “I’m so sorry, I went to far didn’t I?”

You see the panic on his face, and reach up to kiss his cheek, “No, it’s just this is all happening so fast. You have no idea how long I have waited for this moment. I just.... I want to take things slower with you is all..... if that’s okay?”

Once again, relief washes over Alex. He grabs you once again and pulls you in, gently running the back of his hand down your cheek, “Absolutely, whatever you need.”

You smile at him, and he reaches down for one more kiss. “It’s still my birthday, you know?” he smiles down at you. “I have one more request from you.”

“Oh really?” You joke back at him, “and, what would that be?”

Alex points to your closet, “Let’s grab a couple of blankets and head outside, maybe you can teach this jock a thing or two about the constellations.” 

You laugh, “That sounds like a great way to end your birthday.” You try to move towards the closet, but Alex holds you tightly. You look up at him and chuckle, “I’m not sure if you know this, but you’ll have to let me go to gather everything.”

A soft smirk comes across his face, and then he leans in to kiss your forehead. “I know. I just didn’t want to stop looking at you.” With that, he lets you go.

You make your way over to the closet. You open the door and glance up at the blankets on the top shelf. You get up on your toes, and stretch your arm out as far as you can. Suddenly, you feel two large hands grab your waist. The next thing you know, your feet are lifted off the ground. You look back at Alex, and you swear the same smirk that was on his face a minute ago never left. “Thought you needed a lift.” He jests at you.

“Ha. Ha. Very funny.” You are unable to contain your smile. You grab a couple of blankets and Alex sets you down gently. 

You both get ready to head outside, getting your shoes on and digging out some bug repellant candles. The entire time you can feel Alex’s gaze upon you. You can’t help but look over at him either. You have never felt this way before. You feel _light_. All of the weight that previously was on your shoulders has been lifted. Every time you look into his green eyes, you feel a purpose. 

You finish tying your shoe and you stand in an upright position and make your way over to Alex with a handful of blankets and candles. “Ready?” you ask him. 

Alex let out a laugh. People usually believe that a laugh comes from the throat, but with Alex it is all in his eyes. The way his face relaxes and became joyous is beautiful and serene. There was no one else in the world who deserved to be graced with that kind of happiness than him. His giggles and chuckles were enough to allow you to transcend time and space. 

He stood up from tying his own sneakers and grabbed everything from your hands. What looked like a mountain of sheets in your hands fit comfortably under one of his arms. He reached his hand out to you, “Don’t think you are just going to walk empty handed.” 

A warm sensation filled your chest. You grabbed his hand and you laced your fingers through his. His hands reassured you that your world was now safe and meaningful, though withered. A smile forces its way onto your face, and your cheeks immediately blush. With your free hand you grab Alex’s strong arm and lean the side of your head into it. A sense of calm overcame both of you, and you knew this was a feeling you would grow to love quickly.

You both silent walk to a quiet spot on your farm, totally taking in each others essence along the way. Alex sets the blankets down and lights the candles you brought to keep the bugs away. He sets himself down on the blanket, patting the spot next to him. You sit down and look over at him and you laugh with one another. The moment is overwhelming, and your automatic processing takes over. You reach for Alex’s face and aggressively land your lips on his. Alex meets your tone by weaving his fingers through your hair and gently grabbing a handful. You gradually allow your bodies to fall to the ground, becoming completely intertwined with one another. Your legs wrap around his. His hands in your hair and yours in his. Your tongue in his mouth. 

Eventually you slow down, and Alex follows your lead until you are just softly kissing each other under the moonlight. Every now and then you feel Alex’s smile on your lips, and you return the favor. When you pull away, he is there to gaze into your eyes. You can tell that the smile on his face came from deep within his soul. His eyes were sparkling as if there were an entire sky full of stars within them. 

“You are everything.” He whispered to you through his smile. 

You smile, and nuzzle your nose against his; that is the only reply that you feel is appropriate. Words wouldn’t do your feelings justice at this point. 

Eventually Alex rolls over onto his back, and you place your head on his chest and drape your arm over his broad chest. You both remain here for several moments, taking in each other totally and completely. Alex breaks the silence when he points up to the sky and asks, “ What constellation are those stars a part of?”

You adjust your gaze up to the sky and look to see where he is pointing. Unsure, you ask, “Where, there?” Pointing in the general direction that Alex is.

He pulls his face closer to yours, trying to gain your perspective. He takes your hand in his and moves it to where he was looking and says softly, “There.”

You look for a second at the three stars that he is pointing at. They are in a decently straight line, and then you read the rest of the sky around them. Finally you come to a conclusion, “That’s the Andromeda constellation.”

Alex lowers his hand to his stomach and says simply, “Tell me about it.” 

“Andromeda was the daughter of Cassiopeia and Cepheus. Cassiopeia believed that she was more beautiful than the sea nymphs. The sea nymphs became very angry, and complained to Poseidon. Poseidon threatened the land with a great flood. Cepheus went to a prophet to try to find a way to prevent it.” You reply to Alex. 

“Did Cepheus find a solution?” Alex asked you, genuinely curious about the stories end. 

“He did,” you say solemnly. “He was to sacrifice Andromeda.”

Alex remained silent and nodded his head, think about what you just told him. You decided to continue, “She was chained to a rock and was to be devoured by a sea monster. However, Perseus was sailing by and saw her and immediately fell in love with her. He went to her parents and offered to save her if he could have her hand in marriage. They agreed and he saved her and eventually got married. Athena placed an image of Andromeda in the stars as a reward for keeping her parents promise to Perseus.”

Once again Alex stayed quiet. He stared up at Andromeda, taking in the story you just told him. You look over at him and you can see him thinking, “What are you thinking about?” 

He closes his eyes and laughs to himself. He turns to look at you and he says, “to be honest, I’m thinking about you.”

His reply leaves you confused, and you raise your brow at him. You don’t even have to ask, because he begins to explain after reading your face. “I’m just feeling happy. I’ve never had a connection like this and I am grateful for you.” Alex returns his gaze back up to the sky and points to Andromeda, “That constellation meant nothing to me before. I would always look up to it as a kid and wonder what it was. Now, Andromeda, will eternally remind me of you and this night.” Alex dropped his hand back down to the earth. “It’s crazy how something so meaningless can turn into something so meaningful with the right person. I’ll always have that cluster of stars to bring me back to this moment.”

His words light a fire within your heart. What was a cold void is now a raging fire. You have never been so consumed by someone in your entire life. You don’t want this night to end, you wish you could drag it on forever. You blurt out, “Stay over tonight.” 

Alex looks at you with a serious look on his face, “Are you sure? Don’t feel obligated to say that.”

You grab his face in your hands and kiss his cheeks, his forehead, his chin, “I don’t want to be away from you tonight, Alex.” You whisper before placing a gentle kiss on his lips. 

“As you wish.” His breath not hot on your neck. You craved his touch. Your soul craved his touch. As soon as his plump, soft lips settled into a spot on your neck, you lost control of all rational thought. You become totally consumed with falling in love with him in that moment. You breath hitched with each movement, and you allowed yourself to be taken away by Alex. 

“Let’s head back to the house.” You whispered as you nibbled on his ear.

The sensation must have caught Alex off guard. He threw his head back and let out a soft moan. He didn’t even have to answer you, before you were aware of anything, you were being scooped up and carried back to your farm house. You placed gentle kisses on Alex’s jawline and neck as you made your way back to your bedroom. Alex placed you down on the bed and you both became lost in each other. The rest of the night you spent exploring each other’s lips and bodies, pausing every now and then to talk about random nonsense.

\----------------

You wake up the next morning and roll over to grab Alex, but he’s not there. Adrenaline flows into your system and you immediately hop out of bed. You look down and you re still in the clothes that you wore from the evening before. You run out into your kitchen and find a cup of coffee on your table with a note next to it:

I couldn’t wake you, you deserve some sleep! If you are reading this it is because I am out tending to the farm. Drink this and then come find me; I’ll be waiting impatiently.

Yours

You chug the coffee that is now luke-warm and head outside on your porch barefoot. You take your hand to shield your eyes from the sun. You look out into your melon field and you see Alex harvesting and watering your crops. Finally, he looks up and spots you. A smile immediately forms on his face and he waves at you. Your feet move without thinking and you run over to him, jumping up and wrapping your legs around him. 

“Miss me?” He whispered before kissing you softly. You nod into his kiss, smiling uncontrollably. “I missed you too.” He said back to you. 

Alex set you down and you felt the warm Earth beneath your feet. You squished our toes in the dirt and looked up at the resplendent man standing in front of you, “Thank you for doing this.”

“I had to earn my keep for the night!” He said back to you with a wink, returning to his work. “I’m almost done here, why don’t you go back in and relax until I’m done.”

You give him a final kiss before you make your way back to the house, looking back every now and then to look at Alex. The sunlight gave him a golden aura that you wanted to lose yourself to.

You head into your bathroom and take a warm shower. When the water shuts off you hear the door open, “Alex?” you shout.

“I put a towel in the dryer for you, I’m just placing it on the shelf.” And just like that you hear him leave. You grab the towel that Alex brought for you and wrap yourself up in it. You head out to the kitchen and see Alex making breakfast, you stop to look at him. He turns to look at you, “If you want to get strong, you have to eat like you mean it!” 

You let out a laugh and stare at him for a little while longer, you certainly can get used to this. You head into your bedroom to get dressed and rush out to sit down with Alex to grab a bite to eat. You wrap your arms around him and kiss the top of his head, taking in his smell as you do. You then take your seat next to him and begin sampling Alex’s breakfast platter. “This is great Alex! Thank you!” You say shoveling food into your mouth. 

After you are both done you sit there and talk for a bit. Finally, your curiosity takes over, “What are your plans for today?” 

Alex grabs your hand places a kiss on the top of it before answering, “Unfortunately I have to leave to head back into town. Gram and Gramps need me to fix a leak in the roof. But maybe later you would like to join us for dinner tonight?” 

You smile, “I’ll have to check my schedule.”

Alex laughs as he gets up out of his chair. He makes his way over to the sink but you assure him that you can clean everything up. You walk him to the door and he reaches down to kiss you before he leaves, “Dinner is at 5:00, you know, if you are free.” He says with a wink. 


	25. Accidents Happen

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have been writing like crazy the past couple of days!
> 
> I am going to be heading back to college soon and I wanted to get ahead so I can still release chapters for you guys! 
> 
> I am super excited to share my work with you in the upcoming weeks! 
> 
> Thank you so much for all of your support and kindness. I feel like you all are a part of my virtual family and I love you all <3 Thanks for being my muses!

You close the door to your farm house and immediately throw yourself into a dance routine. The amount of excitement that you have contained from the past twelve hours has been boiling up inside of you; it’s time you let all of your positive energy out. 

Your feet feel extremely light on the ground, almost as if you were capable of floating. There is a permanent smile resting on your face. Your immediate gut reaction is to head over to the phone and immediately call Maru. 

You pick up the phone in your kitchen, and you even take a moment to admire how the phone feels in your hand. You dial Maru’s number and impatiently wait for her to pick up on the other end. 

Unfortunately you get the voicemail to Robin’s Carpentry Shop. _She must have already left for the clinic._ You put the phone on the hook and decide to run into town. You change out of your clothes from last evening and put on a pair of compression leggings and a loose fitting tank top. You pull your hair into a braid and place a black hat on top of your head. You absolutely despise when your hair bounces against your back when you run. You grab your running sneakers and head out of the door. 

The sun feels hot on your skin, and it is a nice contrast from the air-conditioning in your farmhouse. You make your way to the clinic. 

Your feet pound the ground beneath you, and dust and dirt flies with each step you take. You can feel your heart rate climbing, but it feels incredible. You have so much energy, it feels good to release it. Usually you listen to music on a run, but today you decided to exist with your thoughts instead. The birds chirping give you life and the extra push that you need to make it into town. 

You still can’t believe how incredible yesterday turned out for you. You have been dreading the anniversary of your grandfather’s death for quite a while, but Alex bared the weight with you and lifted you higher than you could have ever imagined. You are so incredibly grateful for how things turned out for you. You bring your awareness to yourself, and notice that you are wearing a massive smile on your face. You can’t remember a time where you felt this good. 

You make your way to the clinic and barge through the doors. No one is at the front desk, so you take it upon yourself to walk back towards Harvey’s examination room; after all, you and Harvey are pretty close. 

When you push through the two swinging doors, Harvey and Maru were on their down from his apartment. Maru notices you and smiles brightly, running down her last few steps to reach you.

Hey! How have you been?” she says to you while simultaneously pulling you in for a hug. Like always, she smells incredible. Maru lives in a cabin in the mountains, so she typically smells of pine and freshly chopped wood. 

“I’ve been great! I have a lot to tell you when you are free!” you say back to her, squeezing her as hard as you possibly could. 

“I can’t wait to hear everything! Want to meet at the Saloon tonight?” Her eyes are now on yours, and you feel a slight flush come across your face. 

“Actually,” you say as you reach back to rub your neck with a goofy smile, “I have plans with Alex tonight.”

You can tell that Maru is now hungry to know everything that you have to tell her. She turns to Harvey and gives him a look.

Harvey laughs and says to her, “Take the morning off! We don’t have any appointments today anyway.”

Maru let out a squeal and hugged Harvey, throwing his glasses out of place. “Thank you so much! I love you!” Maru lands a kiss on Harvey’s cheek and takes off her nurses cap. Looking at you, she now says, “I am going to grab my thing quick and I’ll be right down!” 

Maru rushes up the stairs, and you giggle slightly at her stomping footsteps. You turn to Harvey and give him a smile, “Thank you for letting me borrow her for the morning!” 

“Anytime! She has missed you like crazy.” Harvey says to you with a nod. “I’m happy things arestarting to come together for you and Alex too! You both deserve to be happy.” 

You smile, tucking a piece of hair that has fallen out of your braid behind your ear, “That means a lot, Harv.” 

You share a sweet moment with your friend, and then Maru shoots down the stair and grabs your hand. He begins to pull you to the front door of the clinic, but the door flies open. Mayor Lewis and Gus rush in. 

“Where is Harvey?” Gus demands, his voice slightly shaken. 

Harvey rushes out from the back of the clinic, “What’s happened? Has there been an accident?” You have never heard Harvey’s tone so sullen and serious. 

“Alex fell while fixing his roof, he is having a difficult time moving.” Mayor Lewis replies quickly and sternly. 

Your heart sinks into your chest. You don’t even have to think, your legs move without hesitation. You push by everyone and make your way over to Alex’s house. You see Evelyn and George outside, and next to them you see Alex’s limp body. Evelyn is tending to Alex the best that she can, propping his head up. You make it over to them and you and Evelyn lock eyes. You don’t say anything to one another, but she knows to let you take over. You bend down and support Alex’s upper body with your arms. Tears forming in your eyes.

Alex reaches his arm up to your face, “Hey girl.” he says with a slight smirk. 

You reach down and place a kiss on his forehead, “Hey boy.” You say back sarcastically through your sadness, earning yourself a chuckle from Alex. A single tear rolls down your cheek, but Alex is there to wipe it away. 

“I’m going to be okay! I may just need someone to take care of me for a little.” He says to you with a wink. You can’t help but laugh. 

“Good thing you have Evelyn.” You say back, jesting with him. 

At that moment, Harvey and Maru appear with all of their equipment. Harvey instructs you to move out of their way, and you oblige. You have never seen Harvey this serious before. Harvey takes off Alex’s boots and asks if he can wiggle his toes. You watch for movement and are relieved when you see movement in his feet. _Thank Yoba._ Harvey helps Alex onto a stretcher, and secures him down for his short trip to the clinic. You reach over for Evelyn and give her a hug, she and George are the only ones who are capable of comforting you right now. 

Evelyn pulls away from you and reaches up to place both of her hand on the sides of your face, “Go keep him company, dear. He needs you.” 

You pull Evelyn in for one more hug and give her a smile before running to the clinic. When you arrive you sit in the waiting room with Mayor Lewis and Gus. You all sit in silence and hope that everything is okay with Alex. 

An hour passes with no word of any sort. You let out an audible groan and throw your head into your hands. Gus places a hand on your back and gives you a pat, “I am sure everything will be alright. Alex is a strong guy.” 

You nod, but you aren’t necessarily convinced. You find yourself staring at the two swinging doors. Your anxiety working you through every possible worst case scenario. Finally Maru comes out into the waiting room and looks right at you, “I figured you’d be here! Alex has been asking for you, want to come back? We are almost done.”

Relief rushes over your body, if something were seriously wrong, you are certain that Maru would have conveyed that with her tone. She isn’t one to cover up her emotions, she wears them on her sleeve. 

You stand up and stretch slightly on your way back to the emergency room part of the clinic. When you enter you can’t help but look around slightly, you have never been in this area before. There are several beds and IV poles. It is clean and pristine, but you wouldn’t expect anything less from Harvey. You notice a curtain that is drawn, and you see Harvey’s shadow behind it. You pick up your pace and peak your head around the corner, “May I come in?” 

Alex sees you and smiles in your direction, reaching his hand out for you to hold. You grab it and hold on for dear life, “Easy there, I don’t want Doc to treat me for a broken hand too.”

You analyze what he said, “Something’s broken?” You now say, looking over at Harvey. 

Harvey nods at you, “There is a small fracture in Alex’s vertebrae.” 

You stand up and look at Alex, borderline shouting, “Your back is fucking broken?!” 

Alex and Harvey both laugh, and you are completely bewildered by their passivity. “Am I missing something?!” You say frantically looking between both of them.

Harvey motions for you to sit down, so you do. “It’s not as serious as it sounds. Alex just needs to take it easy for a couple of weeks. I’m going to give him a brace to wear, and if he follows my orders, it will heal in no time without complication.”

You feel somewhat relieved at his words, but not totally. A broken vertebrae can be serious if there are complications. You turn to Alex, “I’m not letting you out of my sight for the next...” you look at Harvey, and he interjects, “eight weeks.” 

You look back at Alex with wide eyes and mouth “eight weeks” to him. Alex just laughs at you, “sounds good to me.”

Harvey begins again, “I should add that you should be very careful while engaging in sexual activity. You don’t want to add stress to your fracture so only engage in sexual intercourse in positions that are most comfortable to you.”

You can feel the redness in your face and you immediately throw your head down so no one can see the expression on your face. You briefly glance up at Alex, who also seems to have a flush on his face. He catches your eye and you both look away giggling. 

Harvey, who is also obviously flustered, changes the subject, “Uh I also suggest that you take advantage of the local bath house! It’ll be good for your muscles and pain!”

“Got it, Doc.” Alex says, squeezing your hand a little tighter. 

“Aright, Alex. I’m going to go print out some paper work for your recovery and some discharge papers. I assume you’ll be in good company until I return.” And with that, Harvey throws you a smile and makes his way to the other side of the curtain. 

You and Alex look at each other and laugh again. “Good thing we are taking it slow, eh?”

The words bounce around in your head, once again your face catches fire and turns red, “Yeah! Good thing!” you shout manically. 

Alex bursts out into laughter, and then immediately winces in pain. You shoot up out of your chair and stand over him, looking for a way to make his pain disappear. Eventually his discomfort subsides and he says, “Guess I’ll have to stop cracking jokes for eight weeks too. I’m just too damn funny for my own good.”

You roll your eyes and chuckle, sitting back down in your chair. Harvey comes back in and hands you Alex’s paperwork. “Everything he needs to know about his recovery is in there.” Handing Alex a clipboard he says, “I’ll just need for you to sign and initial right here for me, and then you are free to go.” 

“He’s allowed to walk?” You say at Harvey, raising an eyebrow.

“Of course! Just no running or weight training for a while. He should get a lot of rest these next couple of weeks.” He says sternly, looking in Alex’s direction. 

Alex signs his discharge papers and you and Harvey help him get out of the hospital bed. Harvey hands Alex his clothes and exits once again. Without even giving you warning, Alex slowly removes his hospital gown, revealing his beautiful physique. You can’t help but to stare at his form. His skin is so perfectly tanned. All of the muscles in his body ripple with each movement. A V-line makes its way into his boxer shorts; there is a trail of hair that disappears as well. 

“Want a picture?” The question catches you off guard and you look at Alex with a puzzled look. “It’ll last longer.” he says with a smirk. 

Your face flushes again. _I really need to learn how to control this around him_! Alex laughs once again, this time his laugh comes from deep within his core. You watch him fumble to put his shirt on over his head. He reaches for his pants and accidentally drops them on the ground. Without thinking, he quickly bends down to grab them but it struck with a wave of pain. You rush over to help him out, “Easy.”

You place a gentle hand on his shoulder and grab his pants from the floor. You Help him stand and pull them up. 

“Let me put your shoes on today. Your injury is fresh so the swelling is making it difficult to move.” You reach for his shoes, and Alex doesn’t argue with your demand. You gently slide his shoes on and tie them for him. You guide him off of the bed and help him make his way to the front of the clinic.

Maru is out at the front with Harvey, “Be well, Alex!” Harvey shouts at him. Maru looks at you and motions for you to call her. You will have to get together with her soon, I’m sure she understands the circumstances. 

You make it to Alex’s house, and Evelyn and George are there to greet both of you. 

“What’s the diagnosis?” Evelyn say, looking as if she is bracing herself for the worst. 

“Broke my vertebrae again, Gram.” lex says nonchalantly

You look at him confused, “Again?”

“Yes.” Evelyn starts, “He broke his vertebrae once in high school playing gridball. Always pushed himself too hard this one. Is it the same one?”

“It is, Harvey said that the area is greatly weakened.” Alex said, pulling you in closer. 

“You need to be more careful!” Evelyn scolded her grandson.

“I know, Gram. I’m sorry.” Alex said to her so incredibly gently. You can tell by his tone just how much he cares for his grandmother. 

“Alright, well how about some food? Dinner is almost ready.” Evelyn says, making her way back to the kitchen. 

You guide Alex over and you look at the old, rickety chair at their dinning table, “Alex, I’ll go grab you a pillow if you want.” 

Alex nods at you and smiles, “I would really appreciate that.”

You head into Alex’s room and grab a pillow off of his bed. You happen to glance over to his dresser and you notice the music box from the beach. You walk over to it and admire it with a happy smile. You feel overwhelmed with gratitude to know Alex the way you do, and you feel excited to learn more.

You open the box to hear the music, and inside you see a beautiful shell pendent. It curves into a tight spiral and has an iridescent glow to it. You assume that this shell must be connected to his mother somehow, and you make a mental note to ask Alex about it later. 

You go to turn around and Alex is surprisingly standing behind you. “Alex!” you say, slightly frightened and embarrassed that you were caught snooping. “I’m sorry, I was just admir--”

Alex cut you off. He reached around you and you turned around to observe what he was doing. He pressed his chest into your back and placed a kiss on top of your head, “This was my mother’s wedding pendent.” 

“What is a wedding pendent?” you asked him.

“Here in Pelican Town, we have a tradition. Instead of exchanging rings, we exchange these pendents. So it’s like the equivalent of a ZuZu City engagement ring.” He said softly. 

You both stand to admire the pendent. Eventually, Alex places it back in the box and closes it. “Come on, let’s go grab a bite to eat.” He says as he places another kiss on your head.

You turn around in time to catch him. You stretch yourself up to land a kiss on his lips. Humming into it, you tangle one of your hands through his hair. Breaking away, you make direct eye contact with him, “I’m happy you are decently alright.”

Alex smiles at you, wrapping his arms around you, “How could I not be?” 


	26. Something Blue

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you all enjoy this chapter! I started school again this week so things are kind of crazy with me right now! I have a bunch of chapters finished though that are ready for release! 
> 
> Thanks all for your love and support <3

The past two weeks have moved by incredibly fast. Between work on your farm and taking care of the Mullner’s, you have been extremely busy these last two weeks. 

You glance over at your clock to see that the time is now 5:00am. You have been having to get up early now that you have extra duties to attend to. You grumble to yourself and roll out of bed. Barely conscious and awake, you put together an outfit and walk out to the kitchen to chug down a quick cup of coffee. Usually, the smell of coffee rejuvenates you in the early morning. However, as of late, you have become desensitized to it. 

You head outside take care of the animals that you have on your farm. Up until recently, you only had chickens. However, for some reason that escapes you, you decided to add pigs to your farm too. You feed the animals and harvest the products, putting some into the sell bin by your house and saving some for Alex and his grandparents. 

You harvest the rest of the crops for one final season harvest, and clear your land to make room for the new fall crops that will be starting in two days. You heave the harvest, once again saving some for Alex, and head back inside to your couch. You throw yourself down onto the soft, yellow cushions and let out a sigh. A pain arises in your lower back, and you reach a hand back to massage the area gently. You wince at the muscle pain as you rub out the knots. Glancing over at the clock, it reads 11:50. _Ugh._ It has been taking you longer recently to get things done. You are pretty much running on empty. 

You peel yourself off of the couch and get ready to head over to see Alex. You gather the eggs, melons, and corn and head out the door. The haul you are carrying today feels heavier than any one in the past. You make your way into town and are immediately confronted by Harvey.

“You look..... exhausted.” He says to you, worry written across his face. 

“I am, Harv. I haven’t had much time to relax lately.” You say to him as he reaches to lighten your load a bit. 

“That’s not good, you shouldn’t spread yourself so thin like that.” he says to you, “I assume this grocery order is to be delivered to your boyfriend?” 

The word stopped you in your tracks, you stood and looked at Harvey. He returns your gaze, but his looks more confused than anything, “What?” 

“We just didn’t put labels on anything is all. It was weird to hear...” you trail off, starting to walk with Harvey again. 

“Oh, I’m sorry to assume! You just have seemed very close since his accident.” He said to you sincerely. 

“Don’t worry about it Harv.” You say flatly, thinking about the word ‘boyfriend’ until you reached your destination. 

Harvey walks up to the door and knocked, and you just laughed, “Just walk in, Harv.” 

He acknowledges you with a nod and turned the handle on the door entering the residence. You follow closely behind your friend. Thank God that he decided to spend his lunch break helping you. “Just head into the kitchen and put everything down on the table!”

Harvey does as instructed and places everything down in Evelyn’s kitchen. You hear footsteps approaching you and you peak your head down the hallway to see who is there. 

“Hey there!” Alex says with his usual low, husky voice. He picks up his pace and and reaches out to grab you, passionately kissing you as you melt into his body. 

*ahem* 

“Oh shit! Thank you, Harv. It means a lot to me that you spent your lunch break helping me out.” You reach into your bag and pull out a jar of pickled cauliflower that you were saving for George and hand it you your friend. Stars form in his eyes and he grabs the jar out of your hand like a feral animal, and holds it close to his chest. 

“I think your drooling, Doc...” Alex says from your side, joking but also semi-serious. 

“My apologies!” Harvey says, trying desperately to compose himself.

Alex lets out a chuckle, “It’s totally understandable! Her produce and artisan goods are delicious.”

“That’s for sure!” Harvey enthusiastically agrees with Alex. He now glances down at his watch, “Oh dear, I have to head out. I’ll see you both later.” Making his way to the door, he turns back once more to look at you, “Take it easy and be well.”

Harvey shuts the door behind him and you and Alex are left alone in the house. You turn to Alex and he’s already reaching for waist. He leans down and places some soft kisses on your neck.

“How about,” he says in between nibbles, “we have a relaxing day at the bath house?”

“Mmmmm that actually sounds wonderful.” You sincerely mean it. It has been forever since you have been able to relax. Alex has been getting progressively better and you seemed to have fixed everything around the house, so you will totally be able to lose yourself in the moment today. 

Pulling away from Alex, you say, “I just need to go home and grab my bathing suit.”

Alex shook his head, tightening his grip on you, “Just go in your bra and underwear.” 

Alex placed his lips to your neck again. You feel your breath hitch, “What am I going to change into?”

He pulls away slightly, you feel his breath on your ear, “We’ll cross that bridge when we get to it..” 

You can’t really argue with him. You don’t necessarily have the energy to argue with how persuasive Alex is being at the moment. You gather towels and head out towards the bath house, hand in hand. 

When you arrive at the bath house, you are totally taken aback by the beauty of the building. Soft, golden wood creates the body, and there is an area in the front where water trickles out of. You turn to Alex, “This place is really beautiful. I haven’t been here since I moved to Pelican town.”

“Well I’m happy your first time here will be with me.” He says more seductively than he could ever imagine. The words cause your cheeks to ignite and bite your bottom lip. Alex takes your face in his hands and presses his mouth to yours. You lean into the kiss, but this time Alex grabs your bottom lip between his teeth and gives it a nice tug. When he releases you, he murmurs, “Once I saw you do it I had to try it for myself.” 

Flustered, you brush your hair out of your face and let out a breathy laugh. When you gather yourself, you are able to reconnect with Alex’s eyes, “Should we head in?”

Alex nods, and you both head into the bath house, eventually splitting off into your gender assigned locker rooms. You take your pants off and reveal your favorite pair of underwear. They are the cheeky kind and light blue with lace trim. You reach for your shirt, but you realize that you totally forgot you didn’t have a bra on. You stand frozen for a moment, but decide to just go into the water with your t-shirt on. After all, it’s only one that you knock around in anyway. You pull your hair up and make your way to the spa area.

You see Alex already sitting in the water, so you make your way over to a lounge chair behind him. You place your towel down and sit on the edge of the comfy seat. Alex turns around and laughs, “You forgot to take your shirt off.” 

You fiddle with the hem of your shirt, actively trying to avoid his gaze, “Well... you see...” you say, trying not to sound like a complete idiot, “I am not wearing a bra.”

You look at Alex, and are shocked to see an animalistic stare on his face. He looks as if he were about to pounce on you. Something about the way he looks makes you extremely hot, and you instinctively cross your legs tightly.

Alex must have noticed that too because a smirk appeared on his face, “Well you can still come in like that.” 

You nod your head and make your way over to the edge of the hot pool. You gently sit down and place your legs in the water, gradually easing yourself in. Once you are in, Alex throws his arm around your shoulder and you lean your head back. Eyes closed, you listen to the sounds that are around you The water trickles and flows around you, causing a serene humming sound. Alex’s breath is also noticeable, in the distance, low and slow. The hot water feels incredible on your aching back, so you can only imagine how therapeutic it is for Alex. 

You open your eyes and stare up at the ceiling, watching the heat from the pool rise to the air above. You feel Alex shift in the water, and all of a sudden he is standing in front of you. You can’t help but to wrap your arms and legs around him. The water provides a nice buffer for his back. the shirt you are wearing is barely creating a barrier between you and Alex now that it is wet. When your chest presses up against his, you let out a shudder. 

You nuzzle your face into his neck, and begin to kiss it softly. Leaving trails of kisses along his jawline and neck. Alex spins you around and sits down in the hot water so you are now on top of him. Your legs on both sides of him. You feel his hands on your lower back, and he looks at you with slight hesitation, “Is this okay?”

You pause for a moment. You want to take it slow with Alex, but you also have an incredible urge for him to worship your body. _Nothing has to happen_ , you convince yourself. You nod at Alex, and slip your soaked shirt over your head. Alex takes a moment to take you in. He remains silent for several seconds, which causes insecurity to consume you. You go to fold your arms in front of your chest, but Alex stops you and says, “You are more beautiful than I have ever imagined.”

You reach for Alex’s hand and you guide it up the curve of your waist to your breast. You notice euphoria wash across Alex’s face, and you become overwhelmed with emotion. Alex gently massages your chest with his hand, the other one firmly gripping your ass cheek. You arch your head back and let out a soft whimper. Alex is sent into a frenzy from the sound. He places his mouth around your nipple, tenderly kissing the sensitive skin at first, but then nibbling and pulling at it with his teeth. 

A heat is growing in your core that is becoming incredibly difficult to appease, and you thoughtlessly begin to grind your hips onto his. 

A growl escapes his throat which drives you wild. The water that was once calm is now sloshing around both of you. You grab a handful of Alex’s hair and pull his lips into yours. When you and Alex kiss it’s usually soft and sweet. In this moment, however, you are both starving and craving one another. 

Alex reaches his hand underneath you and massages your clit through your panties. The sensation shoots out into your limbs and causes you to moan into Alex’s mouth. All will power that you wanted to preserve going into this momentis gone, and you are fully prepared to allow Alex to dominate your body. 

Suddenly, you hear the door to the bath house open. 

“Fuck!” Alex says as you scramble off of him reaching for your shirt, which was now freezing from laying on the side of the pool. You quickly throw it on and sit back down by Alex. You look over at him and notice him shifting his bathing suit around his erection. You both make eye contact and let out a tiny laugh. 

You look over to see who walked in, and you notice Abigail, Sebastian, and Sam making their way over to you both. 

“Hey you two!” Sam says pleasantly, totally unknowing that he blue balled both you and Alex. 

Alex clears his throat before speaking, “Sam.” He sounded incredibly frustrated, but you don’t blame him in the slightest. 

“Can we join you guys?” He asks both of you. 

All you can do is sink yourself lower into the water. Alex reaches out his arm and gestures for the three friends to take a seat.

You watch as they sit down, still clenching your legs together from the unrelieved sexual tension. Sam turns his attention to you, “Why do you have a t-shirt on?”

“It was a spur of the moment decision to come here, I didn’t feel like going home to gather my things.” you say back to him flatly. 

“Oh.” Sam replied, looking around, “So how long have you two been dating?” 

The question caught you off guard. You haven’t had much time for social interaction these past few weeks so you totally forgot other people in town existed besides you and the Mullner’s. You shuffle around in the pool, playing with the sleeve of your shirt, “I mean we’ve just been hanging out. Nothing else.” _Smooth._

Alex looks at you confused, but your answer wasn’t necessarily false. You haven’t made anything official yet. 

You look over at Sam and shrug. When you look back to Alex there is a solemn look on his face. _Shit._ You reach for his hand under the water and you give him a squeeze. He looks back at you and gives you a half-hearted smile. You can tell that what you said really bothered him. 

You want to leave the bath house house so desperately. So much has happened within the last ten minutes has been so overwhelming. All you want to do is talk to Alex and ask him what he’s thinking. You think for a moment, then you finally say, “Shit, I forgot to close the door to my chicken coop. Alex, you want to head out?” 

He looks over at you, this time more unsure about what is going on, “Uh sure?” He replies. 

You both step out of the pool and dry off. You try to cover up your hard nipples this your arms before you turn to Sam and the gang to say, “See you guys around.” 

Alex gives them a wave and a sad smile, and you both head back to the locker rooms. You ring your shirt out in the shower and put it under the hand dryer for a minute, not that it made a difference. You slip your shorts on over your wet underwear and head out to the front of the spa to meet Alex. 

He is sitting on the edge of one of the lounge chairs waiting for you. When he notices you walking out of the locker room, he stands up and gives you another one of those fake smirks again. You can tell something is seriously bothering him. 

When you reach him, you ask, “What’s wrong, Alex?”

He immediately puts his head down and lets out a hefty sigh, “Honestly, I don’t know. When you said we have just been hanging out, it kind of hurt. But it’s not wrong! We haven’t talked about making this official or anything. I don’t know. I guess just hearing it come out of your mouth stung a bit. I’m sorry.”

You grab Alex’s arm and immediately lean into him, “Do you want to make it official... eventually?”

Alex lets out a chuckle and reaches for your chin, tilting it upward, “You have no idea.”

“Cool, well I guess I’ll think about it.” you say to him, completely joking. 

Alex gives you a light nudge with a giggle, “We kind of just fell into this without effort. I’m honest when I say that I have never had anything like this before. This whole situation has just been so.... easy.” 

You nod your head in agreement. You have had many boyfriends in your past, but nothing to this degree. You have completely fallen head over heels for this man, and it felt good to have your feelings completely reciprocated.

You and Alex stand in an embrace for several seconds. It is Alex who eventually breaks the silence when he says, “If Sam and the others hadn’t walked in..... what would have happened between us?” 

You look up at Alex now, unsure of how to respond. The expression on your face must obviously portray your emotions, because Alex immediately adds, “I mean, were you comfortable with everything?” He takes one of his hands off of you to scratch his head. 

You nod, “Yeah, I was okay with everything that happened. It was just very spontaneous and... everything felt right.” 

Alex leaned down to put a kiss on the top of your head. As always, he lingered longer to smell your hair, “Then that’s all that matters. If you ever are uncomfortable with something that I do, please let me know.” 

“I will.” In that, you feel incredibly lucky to have a man like Alex by your side. He’s totally understanding of where your feelings are, and respects your boundaries. It’s important, and the foundation of your relationship together. 

“You want to head back to your house and just lay around the rest of the day?” He asks you, guiding you towards the door in the process. 

“That sounds fantastic.” You say back to him, genuinely happy that you will have the rest of the day to still relax with Alex. 


	27. Moonlight Jellies

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Things are heating up guys and I am so excited to hear your feedback on the upcoming chapters!! <3
> 
> I am so grateful for how many people reach out and support me! It honestly means the world to me! I never expected this kind of feedback from this project!
> 
> Stay wonderful guys! :3

You are awakened suddenly by a massive, tan arm. It takes you a minute to gain consciousness, but once you do, you cannot help but smile. When you look over your shoulder you see Alex, sleeping soundly. You decide to nuzzle yourself closer to his body, and tightly wrap his arm around you. Alex lowly hummed, and rubbed his face into the crook of your neck; his breath tickling you with each exhale he takes. 

The sunlight is pouring in through your window, warming both of you under the covers. You can’t help but smile given the moment. You reflect on your time in Stardew Valley, and everything you have experienced has led you to this moment. A sensation of gratitude warms your heart as you gently roll over to face Alex, careful not to wake him. He stirs slightly, but thenquickly returns to his peaceful state. His features in sleep were much softer than when he was conscious. The little wrinkle that appears on his forehead was erased by the stillness of his slumber. His mouth was slightly open, and you listened to the breath hiss in and out. There was something so calming in hearing his life force. 

Alex flutters his eyes open, delicately smiling when he sees your face. He pulls you in closer and places a kiss on your head, “Good morning.” 

“Mmmm... indeed,” you say to him, burrowing your head into his chest. Last night with Alex was everything that you needed. After the incident at the bath house you sat and talked all night about your hopes and concerns regarding your relationship. You still haven’t made anything official, but you both agreed that you should remain exclusive to one another. Every now and then one of you would get a little handsy, and things would escalate to a make-out session. However, for the majority of the evening, you connected with each other verbally. 

Since you told Alex that you wanted to take things slow, he has never pushed you into anything regarding physical intimacy. He always allows you to be in control of the situation, and where ever you lead, he follows. 

You begin to kiss the bottom of Alex’s chin, earning yourself grumbles with each one that you place. You begin to work your way down his neck and chest, relishing in the smells and sounds that you experience on your way. You shove Alex over onto his back, and reach his waistline. Licking and nibbling your way across it. 

You glance up at him as you untie his sweat pants, “I think it’s time to get up, Alex.” 

“Yes ma’m.” Alex breaths out.

You pull down his pants to reveal his throbbing member. This is the first time that you are actually seeing it, rather than just feeling it. You become quite intimidated by the size, but you are determined to pleasure Alex. You softly kiss the base of his erection working your way up to the tip. When you get there, you linger with your tongue, drawing slow circles. Alex lets out a tremble, and you notice that he is already gripping the sheets of your bed. The sight drives you crazy. 

You run your tongue along his entire length, before you slowly start to wrap your mouth around his cock. You tease him at first by only taking in the head, but eventually you grow hungry and swallow his length; holding back a gag. Alex takes one of his hands and tangles it into your hair, grabbing with passion and purpose. 

You bob your head up and down, growing faster with the moans that Alex emits from his lips. He bucks his hips, forcing his member deep into your throat, “Fuck... You feel incredible.” You pull off for a moment to catch your breath, using your hand to pump Alex’s slick erection. When you have gathered yourself, lower your mouth back down onto Alex, keeping your hand in place. 

You can tell that the sensation is becoming too much for him to handle. His back is arched and his hands are grabbing at anything that they could hold onto. Eventually he frantically taps you on the shoulder. You glance up at him without removing your mouth, tears in your eyes. 

“Fuck,” he says, throwing his head back onto the pillow, grabbing a fistful of his own hair, “don’t look at me like that.”

You slowly take your mouth off of his sex, a string of saliva still connects both of you. “What’s the matter, Alex?” you purr, still using your hand to pleasure him.

“I’m... going to.. cum...” he says in-between gasps.

“”I know,” you say, more seductively than you knew you were capable of, “I want you to cum in my mouth.”

You and Alex make eye contact, and you lick your lips. Alex projects his head back and lets out the sexiest chuckle you have ever heard. You return your mouth to Alex and not long after you start, he releases into your mouth. You guide him through his release, swallowing everything he loads into you. When his breathing begins to calm, you remove your mouth from his body and land gentle kisses around his pelvic region. You giggle as each kiss makes Alex twitch in his sensitive state of being. 

“Come here.” Alex says while pulling you up towards his face. He plants a sloppy kiss on you, and you are happy to accept it. As he pulls away, as he breathlessly exclaims, “that was..... incredible.”

You laugh and playfully bite his jawline, “I’m happy you enjoyed it. Let me go get something for you to wash up with.” With that, you hop out of bed and grab a warm washcloth for Alex to clean himself up with. You hand it to him and begin to turn in the direction of your bathroom. 

You go to get up, but Alex grabs your wrist, “where do you think you’re going?” 

Alex pulls you down on top of him and snakes both of his hands up the back of your shirt, “isn’t it your turn?” The devilish smile he has on his face causes you to become incredibly turned on, but you aren’t sure if you are ready to leave yourself that vulnerable yet. You put your hands on his chest and push him away slightly, “raincheck?” 

Alex raises an eyebrow to you, but doesn’t argue with you. He accepts what you said, “I can’t wait until you cash that one in.” 

You slide your hands up to his thick neck and interlace your fingers on it’s backside. You pull him in to put his mouth on yours. “I need to go out to take care of the farm.” 

“Do you need any help?” He asks you, while he tucks your hair behind your ear.

You shoot Alex a stern look, “absolutely not. You need to watch your back, remember?”

Alex smiles as he rolls his eyes, “whatever you say, Gram.” 

You nudge him on the chin with a closed fist, “shut up, I’m only looking out for you!”

“Is that what you were doing when you were blowing me?” he asks you with a grin.

Your face immediately flushes bright red and you throw your hands up to your face to cover it. Alex gives you a hardy laugh, and with one of his hands grabs both of your wrists to pull your hands down. 

“I love when you get flustered.” He says as he squeezes both of your wrists together; his face draws itself close to yours. You reach out and grab his lower lip with your teeth, giving it an aggressive tug, “I think I told you to shut up.” 

Alex chuckles and you push yourself off of his lap and get up to get dressed. Without even thinking, you take your clothes off in front of Alex to get dressed for the day. It isn’t until you turn around that you are struck with the realization of what happened. You stare at Alex, wide-eyed, “Did you--”

“I saw everything,” a smug smirk appears on his face, “and I loved every minute of it. 

You aren’t sure how to respond, so you just leave the room and head for the bathroom. When you walk over to the sink, you reach for your toothbrush. When you go to put toothpaste on the bristles, you don’t recognize the toothbrush. Alex walks in just at that moment and grabs his toothbrush out of your hand, “hey, thanks.” 

“Uh... no problem.” You say, suddenly contemplating when Alex started leaving a toothbrush at your farmhouse. 

You brush your teeth together, and Alex jokingly steps in front of the mirror so you can’t see your reflection. You try to jump over him, but it’s pointless-- he’s too large. When you are both done brushing your teeth, you head out to the living room. Alex heads over to his shoes, and slowly reaches down to the floor to brace himself. He puts his sneakers on and cautiously gets up, you can tell that he is still in pain. 

“I have to head home today, we are taking my gramps to the doctor and I’d like to be there with my gram.” He says to you. 

You begin to walk over to him, “You sure you don’t need me to help with that?” You say as you warp you arms around his waist, resting the side of your face on his chest. You always find a way to listen to his heartbeat.

“I’m sure. It’s just moral support!” He assures you. “But I’ll come over tonight so we can watch the jellies together.... that is.... if you want?” The tone of his voice is slightly unsure. 

You turn your head so your chin is now resting on his chest, “I’ll be counting the seconds.” Alex reaches down to give you a peck on the lips. You let him go from your embrace and you both say your goodbyes. When Alex is gone, you head outside to do some final prep for the fall crops that you will begin planting tomorrow. 

You work in the grass and dirt, and perfectly prepare your farm for the fall. All of the ground has been tilled, and the sprinklers will keep the ground moist until tomorrow morning. You feel a glimmer of excitement thinking about pumpkins and the fair. You think about all you want to do this fall, but you soon realize that the source of your excitement is Alex. Every scenario that you are creating in your head centers around him. 

You catch yourself smiling in the the middle of your empty field and are happy no one is around to catch you acting like a total loon. You head back inside and shower, and get ready for your night with Alex. 

Everyone in town has been raving about the dance of the moonlight jellies, but you still aren’t sure what to expect. Whatever it is, you are sure that Alex will find a way to make it an incredible experience. 

You look in your closet, frantically searching for an outfit to wear. _What does one wear to jellyfish....watch?_ You pull out a dress, but you figure that is way too formal for an event like this. “This is ridiculous.” You mutter to yourself as you walk towards your kitchen. 

You reach for the phone and dial Harvey’s number, you figure Maru will be there.

“Hello?” Maru’s rings out through the phone.

“Hey Maru! You don’t anything right now?” You ask her kindly.

“Not at all! What do you need?” Her reply is laced with excitement. 

“Was wondering if you would come over and help me pick out an outfit for tonight?” Your reply matched her tone.

“Be right there.” Her tone turned serious as she hung up the phone like she always does. 

You head over to your couch and you turn on the TV. You watch an episode of _Livin’ off the Land_ while you wait for Maru. 

“ Let's talk corn. It's an unusual crop because it lasts for two seasons! That's right, while most crops die when the season changes, corn lives on. You can grow it in both summer and fall. Now, get out there and plant some corn!” The man sings out on the TV. The way he talks about corn frustrates you for some reason, so you turn the station off. Just as you set the remote down on the table, you hear a knock on your door. 

When you make your way over to the door, you are surprised to see both Harvey and Maru standing on the opposite side.

“Hey guys!” You say it kind enough that Harvey won’t feel unwanted, but you are still confused by his presence at the moment. 

Maru catches on to your nonverbal communication, “Harv and I thought it would be cool to kind of double dat it up tonight, if that’s okay with you?”

You hesitate for a moment, but realize that it’s an excellent idea, you are sure Alex won’t mind either. You nod, “Sounds like a plan to me!” 

Maru makes her way to your bedroom, “I’ll start looking through your closet!” 

You escort Harvey over to your kitchen table and get him situated with some coffee and pickles. _Disgusting_. He is very appreciative, and immediately dives into your offerings. 

You head into your bedroom to find Maru with several outfits laying out on your bed. “Here are your options! the choice is yours.” The words come out of her mouth like a mad scientist; you can’t help but giggle. 

You carefully examine what she has placed out for you. You decide to go with a t-shirt dress. It is yellow with burnt orange stripes on it, and it’s comfortable enough that you won’t hate your choice later on. You turn to Maru and ask, “Sneakers?” 

Maru smiled, “You’re getting better at this.”

You laugh, “I think I just want to be comfortable is all.” 

You slip on some socks and your favorite pair of sneakers, and the outfit is complete. You put some curls in your hair and you a dab of mascara. You walk over to the mirror and do a spin in the mirror to check everything over, and you are totally satisfied. 

You and Maru head back into your kitchen and pull out some old board games that your grandfather must have left in the house after he passed. Time passes by in a flash, and Alex walks into your house right at 9:00pm. 

“Alex!” Maru and Harvey say in unison, “Hi!” 

Alex throws them a friendly wave, “Hey you two!” 

You get up off your chair and walk over to him, you wrap your arms around his neck and he wraps his arms around your waist. When he does this, you feel that he was holding something in his hand. You pull away to look, and he has a beautiful bouquet of flower.

“Alex, these are beautiful.” You say to him, genuinely surprised at his gesture. 

Harvey and Maru gasp in the background. 

Alex tilts your chin up with his hand to look at him, “Since you didn’t know what the pendent meant, I assume you have no idea what this means?” 

You look at him with a raised eyebrow.

Alex chuckles, “In Pelican Town, when someone presents a bouquet to you, well....” He trails off, looking extremely flustered, “It means that they want you to be their significant other.” 

You stare at Alex, unsure of how to respond, “Are you asking me to be your girlfriend?” 

It’s surreal to sat those words out loud. You watch Alex’s face, looking for any sign that he is teasing you or something. 

Alex fills the gap in between you with his broad chest. He reaches down to gently kiss you on your forehead, “I’ve never in my life felt this way before, I want you to be mine.” 

You gaze deep into Alex’s eyes, “Always.” 

Alex picks you up with one arm and spins you around, eventually placing you down on your feet. “Hey! Watch your back!” you say to him through laughter. 

Maru and Harvey join both of you, incredibly excited by the news. They drag both of you in for a hug, and you couldn’t feel happier in this moment if you tried. You never though Alex was serious about committing to you, but now, now you have to rethink everything. All of the walls that you had built up have started to deteriorate. 

You all dispatch from the hug, and Alex runs the back of his hand down your cheek, “And I am always yours.” 

You both rush in to each other, desperate for a kiss. You slam your face into his, and he is there to reciprocate. You suddenly regret having Harvey and Maru over to attend the event with you both. You are starving for Alex. 

You can hear Harvey and Maru giggling in the background, so you and Alex break apart from the embrace. You can tell that there is frustration between you both by the way he is still holding your hand. 

“We are so happy for you both!” Maru says as she pulls Harvey in for a hug. 

You and Alex just look at each other and smile. There aren’t any words that you have to express right now. All of your desires are completely physical. 

You all get ready to make your way to the beach, and you place your new bouquet into an old yellow vase. On the way there, you and Alex trail behind Harvey and Maru and you have a difficult time keeping your hands off of him on your way there. You find any excuse you possibly can to rub up against him. Every now and then, Alex will run his hand down your back and take a handful of your ass.

When you get to the beach, Maru and Harvey head up to to grab a spot right in the front. You don’t follow them, for you want to have a little bit of privacy with Alex. You sit down on the pier and dangle your feet off the edge; Alex mimics you as he wraps his arm around you to pull you into him. 

“Thank you.” you say to him softly. There isn’t much light on the beach tonight. There is a single boat with a lantern on it, and of course, the moonlight. The lunar glow that radiates off of Alex’s face is breathtaking. You feel lucky to be able to even look at him.

“You don’t have to thank me.” He replies with a husky laugh.

You turn to look at him, placing a delicate hand on the top of his thigh, “I do though. You have been incredible, and I haven’t been open to being... well... open with you. I’ve kept walls up and you definitely don’t deserve that.”

Alex gives you a look of uncertainty, “what do you mean?”

A sigh escapes your lips, “I just haven’t wanted to allow myself to be physically vulnerable with you. I haven’t been able to give you all of me, merely because I was afraid of getting hurt an--”

Alex cuts you off, “Don’t apologize for that. You had every right to be closed off to certain things. Our relationship has been all over the place, and I understand your hesitation; it is totally valid!” 

You rest your head on Alex’s shoulder and let out a silken hum, “I’m so lucky.” 

Alex turns his head to kiss the top of yours, inhaling in your essence while he’s at it, “I am the lucky one.”

Just at that moment, you and Alex notice the boat sail off into the ocean abyss. You wait patiently, and then you finally see the iridescent light coming from the water. The gelatinous blob emit a beautiful aurora like glow, that now consumes the pier. 

“Wow! This is so beautiful!” You say, pointing to different blobs that pass you. 

“Yes, you are.” Alex says in a whisper. You look over at him and his gaze is steadfast on you. You both veer in and press your lips to each other’s. You whimper into his kiss, and he squeezes you tightly to reassure you of his never-leaving presence. These kisses aren’t nearly as hungry as they were back at your house. They are gentle and purposeful. 

Finally, Alex breaks the moment, “lets get out of here.” 

You oblige by getting up off of the pier. You and Alex take a slow walk back to your farmhouse. There is an eagerness that consumes both of you, and you are impatiently anticipating what is to come...


	28. Here We Go

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I hope you guys enjoy! This pretty much wraps everything up for this story! Thank you all for supporting me and encouraging me! It means so much to me!

You and Alex make your way back to your farmhouse. Your hands fumble and tremble with your keys. You chuckle to yourself, because you are reminded of the night Alex walked you home from the Saloon back in the beginning of the summer. 

When you open the door, you don’t even have time to reach for the lights before Alex is on top of you. The only thing that is illuminating the house is the gentle moonlight. When your lips find his, you immediately let go of all of the barriers that you had left. You drop your things on the floor, and wrap your hands around his neck. 

The kisses start off slow and sweet, much like those you shared on the pier. However, it doesn’t take them long to turn desperate. You can’t get enough of one another. No matter how hard you kiss Alex, it doesn’t seem to be enough. You are both starving for one another.

He pushes you back towards your bedroom, snaking his hands down to your thighs to pull your dress over your head. You shudder at the feel of his bare hands on your curves. Once the dress your dress is off, Alex hoists you up and you reply by wrapping your legs around him. Your bare chest flushes against his clothed one, and you feel his hands grip you harder. The sensation causes you to throw your head back and gasp. Alex takes a moment to grace your neck with his lips, licking and sucking whenever he deemed necessary. 

You reach the bed and Alex throws you onto it. You prop your body up with your elbows to take a good look at the man standing in front of you. In one swopping motion he removes his shirt, revealing his incredibly chiseled body. You can’t help but to lick your lips. Alex motions towards you and you spread your legs, inviting him to consume you. Alex slides his hand from your hip up to your breast, kneading it in the process. You whimper, and Alex slowly lowers himself to your swollen lips.

He slowly moves his kisses from your lips... to your chin.... to your neck.... to your nipple. His hot breath on your chest causes you to let out a moan. Alex teases you for a moment, guiding his breath and his nose around your sensitive buds. You buck your hips and Alex lets out a low, deep growl before moving down to your stomach. You watch him move lower, noticing the rise and fall of your belly rapidly increasing. Eventually he reaches your panties and he moves his hands underneath them to grab your hips. You shudder, you aren’t used to being touched in that region. Alex twists his hands and grabs the last article of clothing you are wearing, sliding them down without effort. 

Your initial instinct is to close your legs. You sit yourself up once again, watching as Alex drags your body to the edge of the bed. He kneels down and takes your knees in his hands and opens your quivering legs. He runs his hands all the way up your leg, running a finger over your drenched womanhood. The feeling sends your head flying back with a pant. Alex plays around with you, testing to see where your most sensitive areas are. Once he was done exploring, he brings his mouth to the hot spot between your legs. His tongue runs gentle circles around your clit, only barely tasting you. Then, like a hungry animal, he wraps his arms around your legs and buries his face in you. The electricity that runs down your spine to your core is all-consuming. “A-Alex...” you gasp out, reaching your hand into his hair, careful not to to move him from his current position. Alex hummed into your pussy as a response, and the vibration almost sent you over the edge. You collapse into the bed, and then suddenly Alex stops. He hovers above you with a smirk, “I’m not letting you finish yet.”

You let out a frustrated groan as you bring your self up to Alex. You undo the belt that is wrapped around his jeans and slide it off, throwing it to the floor with a thud. You pull his pants and boxers down, and reveal his massive, throbbing cock. Suddenly you are hit with the realization that, that is supposed to fit inside of you. Alex notices the worry on your face and cups your face with his hand placing a peck on your cheek, “I’ll take care of you.” 

You nod, kissing him around his waistline while simultaneously stroking him. “Where are your condoms?” he asks in a low groan while grabbing your hair, forcing you to look at him. You point to your night stand and watch Alex make his way over. When he opens the drawer, a sexy laugh escapes his throat. 

“What’s so funny, Alex?” you say, eyes fixated on his tight, toned ass.

He turns around, more mischievous than ever, throwing the condom on the bed next to you. In his other hand he holds your light blue vibrator, “I think I want to make you beg for it.” The words bounce around your head causing you to go into a frenzy. Alex grabs his belt and instructs you to move up towards the head board. You shuffle your way up and watch as he remakes his way onto the bed.

“Let me see your wrists.” He demands, and honestly it is incredibly erotic.

You straighten your arms out in front of you, exposing the underside of your wrists. Alex grabs them and pins them above your head. He lingers for a moment by your ear and whispers, “good girl.” His words sent a jolt of electricity down to your core, and you let out a soft moan. He ties you to the bed post with his belt and grabs your legs with his muscular arms, vibrator in hand. The sudden buzz of your vibrator has you writhing in anticipation. Suddenly, you feel the the contact, and it was like nothing you have ever felt before. You have used this vibrator hundreds of times, but it has never felt like this. You squirm and moan as the toy pulses pleasure into your body.

You feel a wave of warm energy swell up around your clit, and it eventually starts to travel to your belly and chest. “Oh my...... Fuck..... Alex.” Just as you are about to go over the edge, the sensation stops. You look down at Alex and he leans in to place his lips on your inner thigh, “I told you....” he licks his way up to your heat, “I want you to beg.” 

With that you can’t help but to whimper, “P-Please, Alex...”

“Sorry, you waited too long.” You hear the vibrator turn back on, and all rational thought leaves your head. Once again Alex brings you close to climax, only to take the pleasure away just at the perfect time. 

“Please! Alex!” You desperately plead with him, the leather from his belt rubbing your wrist raw as your body tremors. 

“Please what?” He asks, planting sweet kisses on your sweet spot. 

“Fuck me!” You say breathlessly. Sweat is consuming your body, and you are frantically looking for a release. 

Alex doesn’t hesitate. He lets out a guttural grunt and reaches for the condom. Before you can blink he has it rolled up onto his twitching cock. Alex releases your restraints and your arms fall down onto him. You reach up and fiercely bite his lip, your sexual frustration is at an all time high. 

Alex chuckles into your mouth, “easy, girl.” He places the head of his erection on your opening. He slowly pushes in, but teasingly pulls back out. You are dying to have him inside of you. He notices you shudder and gives you a smug grin. This time he gradually slides his manhood into you, stretching your walls out to a painful limit. He pauses there and reaches down to litter your face with kisses, whispering in your ear, “you let me know when you are ready.” 

After you take a moment to get used to his size, you nod at him. He pulls himself out and thrusts back into you. On the downward motion, you let out a hum of pleasure. This inspires Alex to set a beautiful rhythm; in and out. His thrusts were gentle at first, but then they grew harder, more frantic. You wrapped your legs around his back, imploring him to drive deeper inside of you. You wanted him in the deepest part of you. You wanted his sweat to roll onto you. You weren’t even sure if you wanted pleasure anymore, you just wanted to ache. 

Panting and barely able to catch your breath, you feel yourself building up to the point of explosion. You rotate your hips in a circular motion, trying to push yourself over the edge this time.

“Mmmm.... please.... make me cum.” you whimper and whine in his ear.

Alex’s breathing was erratic and all he could do was nod. Just watching his face as plowed you into the mattress was enough to give you the push you needed. You have never seen Alex come undone like this before. A cataclysmic explosion erupted in your soul, and waves of pleasure shot throughout your body. You exclaimed his name and he continued to guide you through your orgasm. Your walls clamping down onto Alex.

When you came down from the high, everything felt hazy. Alex was so incredibly tight in you that you felt his dick begin to convulse. Alex buried his face deep into your neck and let out a muffled moan. 

When he returned to reality, he collapsed his body weight on top of you. The sweat from both of your bodies made everything slick. You rubbed your hand on his back, caressing him down from his elevated state. You stayed in that moment for a while, just listening to each others breath. Every now and then he would kiss your neck, while his hand remained tangled in your hair. 

Alex eventually rolled off of you onto his back and laced his fingers through yours. You rolled over and delicately draped your arm across him. Neither of you had any intentions on speaking for the rest of the evening it seemed. You just laid there with each other, relishing in the moment until a wave of unconsciousness swept over both of you. 

\----------------------

The morning sun gently whispers to you to open your eyes. When they flutter open to the world, you are struck with the image of a sleeping Alex. The soft features of his face starkly contrast what you witnessed last night. His lips are squished together and look incredibly plump, and there is a beautiful rose hue that graces his cheeks. You never noticed until now, but Alex has the longest, most beautiful eyelashes. You can’t help but to reach your hand up to his face to feel his soft, tan skin. 

The impact jolts Alex, and he slowly comes awake, smiling when he realizes you are the reason for his consciousness. “Morning.” He says groggy, pulling you in for a kiss. 

You both lay there and stare into each others eyes, smiling foolishly. Alex fiddles with your hair, finally breaking the silence, “I’ve never felt this way before....” 

You kiss him in response, “Neither have I.” 

A serious face washes over him, “I’m serious....” he trails off, breaking eye contact.

You are taken aback by his response. You now match his tone, “I am too, Alex.”

“Ugh...” he replies, running a hand through his hair. “I’m not good at talking about feelings... I just-- I don’t know.” 

A little bit of concern enters the pit of your stomach, “What is it, Alex?” 

He rams his face into yours for a teeth clashing kiss. He places his forehead on yours, “I’m in love with you... so madly in love with you...”

The words cause a heat to ignite in your chest. You smile and roll on top of him, pulling him in for a deep, slow kiss, “I love you too, Alex.” 

Alex sits up with you on top of him, he places his large hands on your back as you passionately embrace one another. Your lips locked, unable to detach. You feel him grow harder beneath you, and you reach your hand out to your nightstand, fumbling to grab protection. Once you have it you open the package, and roll the rubber around Alex’s dick, gently pinching the tip. You never break with Alex the entire time. 

You lift your self up, with the help of Alex, and slam yourself down onto Alex. You both moan into each others mouths, as your tongues playfully dance around the other. You bounce up and down, and Alex removes one of his hands from your back to reach down to rub your clit. You hiss at the contact, realizing just how sensitive you are from the night before. You started this intimacy off in control, but it doesn’t take you long before you lose it. The pleasure becomes too much for you, and you arch your back, back in ecstasy. Alex has both of his hands on your hips and he is now totally lifting you off and on his cock. You reach your climax fast today, and you once again yell his name out into your house. Not long after, Alex follows. 

You both breathlessly hold one another, and you can see a tear roll down Alex’s cheek. You softly wipe it away and kiss the area it trailed down. The moment is tender. It is sweet. And it is intimate. 

You spend the rest of the morning whispering sweet nothings and clinging to each other. You both roll out of bed around noon, and quickly shower together. Alex cleans your back and you clean his. You also can’t help but to massage shampoo into his thick brown hair. 

When you are all dressed and ready for the day, you head out into the kitchen. Alex runs out to your porch and grabs the paper, sitting down at your table to read the news. You throw on your work boots, “I’m going to head out to do some work for a bit.... reality sucks.” 

Alex walks over to you and gives you a kiss, “I’ll be making breakfast for us, do you care if I stick around today.”

You stare deep into his deep, green eyes, “I never want you to leave me again.” You place your head onto his chest. Your favorite sound in the world is Alex’s heartbeat.

Alex smiles at you, “Your wish is my command.”


End file.
